University  of  Calif  ornia  •  Berkeley 


SPEECH 


OF 


JOHN  B.  WELLER, 


DELIVERED   BEFORE   THE 


DEMOCRATIC    CLUB 


AT 


,  OaL, 


SAN   FRANCISCO: 
i  86*30 


y. 

CORRESPONDENCE. 


PETALUMA,  June  11,  1863, 

Hox.  JOHN  B.  WELLER  :1 

Dear  Sir—  At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Petaluma  Democratic  Club,  a  resolution  was  passed 
requesting  of  you  the  privilege  of  publishing  your  address  delivered  before  us  on  the  6th  inst. 
If  you  feel  disposed  to  comply  with  our  request,  please  forward  the  manuscript,  or  give  us  the 
privilege  of  making  a  copy  of  it,  at  such  time  as  may  be  convenient  to  you. 
With  great  respect,  I  remain  yours,  etc., 

THOS,  L.  CAROTHERS, 

Secretary  of  Club, 


FRUIT  TALE,  Cal.,  14th  June,  1863. 

Your  note  of  the  llth  inst.,  requesting  a  copy  of  a  speech  recently  delivered  by  me  at 
Petaluma  for  publication,  has  been  received.    In  reply  I  have  to  say  that  I  « 
as  early  a  day  as  possible. 

Very  truly  your  oVtBerrt,      JOHN 

THOS,  L.  CABOTHERS,  Esq.,  Sec'y  Dem.  Club, 


f 


SPEECH 


OF 


EX-GOVERNOR  JOHN  B.  WELLER. 


FELLOW  CITIZENS  : — During  the  past  two  years,  as  many  of  you  know,  I  have  been 
engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits,  and  taken  no  part  whatever  in  political  affairs.  In  the  calm 
quietude  of  my  rural  home  I  have  watched  the  movements  of  that  terrible  storm  which  is  now 
howling  so  fiercely  around  us.  At  its  commencement  I  was  the  representative  of  the  United 
States  at  a  Foreign  Court,  where  civil  war  then  raged,  and  you  may  imagine  how  deeply  I  felt 
humiliated  when  reminded  by  a  countryman  that  some  of  the  Stars  upon  that  proud  emblem 
which  floated  over  my  residence  had  gone  out,  and  that  America,  like  unfortunate  Mexico,  was 
to  be  devastated  by  a  fratricidal  contest.  As  an  old  National  Democrat,  ready  and  willing  at 
any  time  to  sacrifice  his  life  to  maintain  the  Union  of  the  States  and  the  liberties  of  the  people,  I 
need  hardly  say  that  I  have  shed  many  bitter  tears  over  the  deplorable  condition  of  my  country. 
Called  into  the  National  Councils  as  soon  as  eligible  under  the  Constitution,  and  having  devoted 
a  large  portion  of  my  life  to  public  affairs,  I  could  not  but  feel  in  this  hour  of  darkness  and  gloom 
the  deepest  solicitude  for  the  future  welfare  of  the  Republic.  It  would  probably  have  been 
better,  so  far  as  popiilarity  is  concerned,  for  me  (an  Ohioan  by  birth  and  education,)  to  have 
fallen  in  with  the  current,  and  lauded  the  powers  that  be  ;  but  entertaining  the  opinions  which  I 
eincerely  do,  I  should  have  lost  my  self-respect,  destroyed  the  reputation  which  I  have  labored 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  acquire,  and  gone  down  to  my  grave  a  despised  and  dishonored  man. 
Friends,  for  whose  opinions  and  feelings  I  have  the  highest  regard,  have  attempted  to  dissuade 
me  from  speaking  at  this  time,  but  I  never  allow  personal  considerations  to  control  my  political 
actions. 

Why,  I  am  asked,  do  you  consent  to  leave  the  quiet  circle  in  which  you  move,  and  place 
yourself  in  a  position  where  you  will  draw  down  upon  your  head  the  denunciation  and  abuse  of 
a  great  many  of  your  countrymen  ?  It  is  sufficient  for  me  to  say  in  reply,  that  th'e  Democrats  of 
California,  who  have,  in  years  past,  bestowed  upon  me  the  highest  honors  within  their  gift,  have 
asked  my  opinion  in  regard  to  the  present  condition  of  the  country,  and,  they  are  entitled  to  it. 
Besides,  it  is  due  to  my  children  that  I  should  exert  whatever  little  influence  I  may  have  to  secure 
to  them  a  Government  which  will  protect  their  persons  and  property  after  I  have  ceased  to 
exist. 

Looking  at  the  melancholy  picture  which  is  spread  before  me,  I  could  not  have  died  hap 
pily  if  I  had  not  raised  my  voice  in  behalf  of  an  outraged  and  oppressed  people.  I  see  the 
bloody  hand  of  the  tyrant  strangling  the  Angel  of  Liberty,  and  surely  it  is  mv  duty  to  go  to  her 
rescue,  and  do  what  little  I  can  to  release  and  place  her  upon  that  high  position  which  she  has 
hitherto  occupied. 

Men  of  Sonoma,  will  you  allow  a  man  who  has  endeavored  to  serve  his  country  faithfully 
in  war  and  in  peace,  to  give  free  utterance  to  his  thoughts  here  to-day  ?  I  desire  to  speak  the 
truth,  and  do  justice  as  becomes  an  American  who  scorns  the  idea  of  belonging  to  either  the 
North  or  the  South,  and  who  owes  allegiance  to  no  party  organization  now  in  existence.  In  all 
the  discussions  which  have  taken  place,  in  war  as  well  as  in  peace,  the  greatest  freedom  of  debate 
has  been  allowed.  Indeed  it  is  to  free  discussions  alone  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  our  liberty  during  our  National  existence.  Based  as  our  Government  is,  upon  public 
opinion,  it  is  of  the  last  importance  that  that  public  opinion  should  be  enlightened,  and  this  can 
only  be  accomplished  by  the  toleration  of  the  liberty  of  speech  and  the  freedom  of  the  press — 


the  sources  from  which  the  people  derive  information  in  regard  to  public  affairs.  To  applaud  all 
that  the  Executive  has  done  or  is  doing  without  examination  is,  to  my  mind,  the  basest  servility. 
This  '•  is  the  screen  by  which  power  is  concealed  in  its  gradual  progress  to  despotism — its  most 
dangerous  if  not  its  only  dangerous  approach.  And  when  nothing  worse  than  imbecility  wields 
the  reins,  it  is  by  this  it  is  upheld  in  its  course  from  blunder  to  blunder  until  it  converts  National 
misfortune  into  National  ruin.'' 

Goldsmith,  who  was  a  pretty  good  judge  of  human  nature,  and  a  respectable  statesman, 
said  :  "  Opposition,  when  restrained  within  due  bounds,  is  the  salubrious  gale  that  ventilates  the 
opinions  of  the  people,  which  might  otherwise  stagnate  into  the  most  abject  submission.  It  may 
be  said  to  purify  the  atmosphere  of  politics;  to  dispel  the  gross  vapors" raised  by  ministerial 
artitice  and  corruption,  until  the  Constitution,  like  a  mighty  rock,  stands  fully  disclosed  to  the 
view  of  every  individual  who  dwells  within  the  shade  of  its  protection.  Even  when  this  gale 
blows  with  augmented  violence,  it  generally  tends  to  the  advantage  of  the  Commonwealth.  *  * 
Without  these  intervening  storms  of  opposition  to  exercise  his  faculties,  he  would  become  ener 
vate,  negligent  and  presumptuous,  and,  in  the  wantonness  of  his  power,  trusting  to  some  deceitful 
calm,  perhaps  hazard  a  step  that  would  wreck  the  Constitution.''  These  remarks  are  more  appli 
cable  to  our  Government  than  to  Great  Britain.  This  opposition  to  the  powers  that  be,  when 
confined  within  proper  limits,  is  indispensable  to  the  preservation  of  the  Constitution.  The 
struggle  between  the  "  outs  "  and  "  ins,'7  although  sometimes  conducted  in  a  disgraceful  manner, 
exercises,  nevertheless,  a  salutary  influence  upon  the  Government ;  they  keep  the  attention  of  the 
people  constantly  directed  to  their  public  agents,  and  thus  compel  them  to  move  within  the 
sphere  prescribed  by  the  fundamental  law  of  the  land.  If  the  party  in  power  transcends  the 
Constitution  or  invades  the  rights  of  the  citizen,  the  Opposition  sounds  the  alarm,  and  the  people, 
if  the  charge  be  true,  apply  the  remedy  which  the  law  provides.  "  Eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of 
liberty."  I  would  not  trust  any  party  in  power,  no  matter  what  its  creed  might  be,  unless  there 
was  an  Opposition  to  keep  watch  upon  their  movements.  We  want  not  only  a  sufficient  guard 
around  the  camp,  where  our  Constitution  is  deposited,  but  we  should  have  pickets  out  in  every 
direction  to  sound  the  alarm  at  the  first  movement  of  the  enemy.  It  is  by  slow  and  steady  steps 
alone  that  the  people  can  be  enslaved.  Mr.  Madison,  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the  Virginia  Con 
vention,  advocating  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution,  says  : 

"Since  the  g«neral  civilization  cf  mankind,  I  believe  there  are  more  instances  of  the  abridgement  of  the  free 
dom  of  the  people  by  gradual  and  silent  approaches  of  those  in  power  than  by  violent  and  sudden  usurpation;  but  on 
a  candid  examination  of  history  we  shall  find  the  turbulence,  violence  and  abuse  of  power,  by  the  majority* trampling 
on  the  rights  of  the  minority,  have  produced  factions  and  convulsions  which  in  republics  have  more  frequently  than 
any  other  cause  produced  despotism.  If  we  go  over  the  whole  history  of  ancient  and  modern  republics,  we  shall  find 
their  destruction  to  have'generally  resulted  from  these  two  causes." 

Now  these  two  causes,  to  which  Mr.  Madison  attributes  the  downfall  of  ancient  and  modern 
republics — 1st,  "Abridgement  of  the  freedom  of  the  people  by  gradual  and  silent  approaches  ;" 
2d,  "the  turbulence,  violence  and  abuse  of  power  by  the  majority  trampling  upon  the  rights  of 
the  minority" — are  both  in  full  operation  in  our  unfortunate  country. 

It  is  proper  to  remark,  however,  that  the  freedom  of  the  people  was  not  in  this  case 
abridged  by  gradual  and  slow  approaches,  but  by  violent  and  rapid  movements.  The  blow  was 
so  sudden,  so  unexpected,  that  the  public  mind  was  completely  stunned,  and  has  not  yet  recovered 
from  the  shock.  Civilians,  having  no  connection  whatever  with  either  the  army  or  navy,  are 
seized  by  a  military  force  without  warrant  of  law,  transported  to  distant  States  and  incarcerated 
in  prisons  by  the  order  of  the  President,  or  some  of  his  military  subordinates.  When  the  unfor 
tunate  citizen,  whose  only  crime  was  that  he  was  suspected  of  being  unfriendly  to  the  powers  that 
be,  appealed  to  the  Constitution  and  invoked  the  protection  of  that  great  writ  of  right,  the  habeas 
corpus,  he  was  told,  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  suspended  it !  The  unlucky  editor  who 
claimed  that  Congress  alone  possessed  the  power  to  suspend  the  writ,  and  that  no  man  could  be 
deprived  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  without  due  process  of  law  under  the  Constitution,  he  too 
was  seized,  his  press  destroyed,  and  his  body  transferred  to  a  military  prison. 

The  second  cause  assigned  by  Mr.  Madison  is  in  full  force,  "  the  abuse  of  power,  and  the 
majority  trampling  on  the  rights  of  the  minority."  Majorities  in  our  country  have  oftentimes 
been  intolerant  and  frequently  trampled  upon  the  rights  of  the  minority  ;  but  this  is  the  first  time 
in  the  history  of  America  that  the  minority  is  not  allowed  to  exercise  any  rights  u  hatever.  Blind, 
implicit  obedience  to  the  mandates  of  the  majority,  no  matter  how  unconstitutional  they  may  be, 
is  required  of  all.  If  we  complain  of  these  usurpations  of  power,  if  we  refer  to  their  outrages 
upon  our  liberties  and  the  Constitution,  we  are  denounced  as  traitors,  and  fortunate  are  we  indeed 
if  some  provost  guard,  "  dressed  in  a  little  brief  authority  "  from  some  military  officer,  does  not 
seize  us  and  transport  us  to  prison. 

Men  of  Sonoma:  You  may  strike,  but  will  you  hear  me?  At  the  commencement  of  this 
war  there  was  but  one  sentiment  in  the  North—"  the  Constitution  must  be  maintained  and  the 
Union  preserved."  In  consequence  of  the  policy  adopted  by  the  Administration  in  its  prosecu 
tion,  divisions  now  exist  which  may  be  classified  as  follows  : 

First— Those  who  believe  that  the  Union  can  still  be  restored  by  a  vigorous  prosecution  of 
the  war. 

Second— Those  who  are  in  favor  of  the  entire  subjugation  of  the  South,  and  the  emancipa 
tion  of  the  slaves.  This  class  is  not  in  favor  of  the  Union  as  it  was. 


5 

Tlwrd — Those  who  are  in  favor  of  the  Union  as  it  was,  but  believe  that  a  continuance  of  the 
war  will  widen  the  breach  and  render  re-union  impossible,  and  are  therefore  in  favor  of  a  peace 
able  separation  with  a  view  to  future  re-construction. 

You  will,  no  doubt,  be  able  to  determine,  before  I  conclude  these  remarks,  to  which  of 
these  classes  I  belong. 

I  think  it  must  be  evident  to  every  unprejudiced  mind,  that  there  are  two  parties  in  this 
country,  both  of  whom  are  in  the  wrong. 

First — Those  who  affirm  that  there  was  no  provocation  whatever  for  this  rebellion — in  other 
words,  that  the  South  had  no  just  complaint  against  the  North. 

Second — Those  who  affirm  that  the  causes  were  sufficient  to  justify  revolution.  In  national 
quarrels,  as  well  as  in  those  of  a  domestic  or  private  character,  both  parties  are  generally  more  or 
less  to  blame.  It  is  to  my  mind  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  people  would  resort  to  revolution 
unless  they  believed  themselves  oppressed. 

The  declaration  which  separated  us  in  1776  from  Great  Britain  says,  "  All  experience  has 
shown  that  mankind  is  more  disposed  to  suffer  while  evils  are  sufferable,  than  to  right  themselves 
by  abolishing  the  forms  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed."  The  same  idea  is  advanced  by 
one  of  England's  most  eminent  statesmen  in  the  following  language  :  "  No  intelligent  people  ever 
rose  or  ever  will  rise  against  a  sincere,  rational,  benevolent  authority. ,  No  people  were  ever  born 
blind.  Infatuation  is  not  a  law  of  human  nature.  Where  there  is  a  revolt  by  a  free  people  with 
the  common  consent  of  all  classes  of  society,  there  must  be  a  criminal  against  whom  that  revolt  is 
aimed." 

We  must  look,  then,  to  the  history  of  the  country  to  find,  if  possible,  the  causes  which  pro 
duced  the  war  which  is  now  deluging  our  once  peaceable  and  happy  republic  in  blood.  Is  it  not 
strange  that  here  in  the  full  meridian  light  of  the  nineteenth  century,  with  all  the  vast  progress 
which  has  been  made  in  everything  that  elevates  and  ennobles  human  nature,  that  one  of  the  most 
destructive  civil  wars  that  ever  blotted  the  pages  of  history,  should  have  broken  out?  A  nation 
that  had  advanced  with  the  strides  of  a  giant  to  the  highest  point  of  greatness,  challenging  the 
wonder  and  admiration  of  the  world,  honored  and  respected  by  every  civilized  nation  upon  the 
face  of  the  globe,  in  two  short  years  torn  to  pieces  by  intestine  factions  and  civil  war,  and  re 
duced  to  wretchedness  and  misery!  Loaded  down  with  debt  and  taxation,  and  more  than  half  a 
million  of  her  people  slaughtered  upon  the  field  of  battle ! 

Ob,  fanaticism !  thou  hast  done  the  deed;  thou  hast  stilled  the  warm  and  generous  hearts  of 
this  vast  multitude  of  our  gallant  and  chivalric  countrymen ;  thou  hast  robbed  the  aged  mother  of 
her  only  son — the  widow  of  her  last  support — the  wife  of  her  kind  husband,  around  whom  all  the 
affections  of  her  heart  were  gathered— the  sister  of  her  noble  brother  who  was  ready  at  all  times 
to  sacrifice  his  life  to  protect  her  honor,  and  converted  countless  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands 
of  once  happy  homes  into  houses  of  misery  and  mourning ;  thou  hast  filled  the  land  with  widows 
and  orphans,  and  made  the  rivers  to  run  with  the  blood  of  our  own  people.  The  wail  of  the 
broken-hearted  comes  from  the  mountains  of  the  North,  and  is  heard  reverberating  in  the  valleys 
of  the  South  and  West.  Thou  hast  constructed  a  colossal  pyramid,  higher  than  that  of  ancient 
Egypt,  out  of  the  bones  of  our  citizens,  in  which  are  deposited  the  blighted  hopes  and  ruined  pro 
spects  of  millions  of  people !  And  still  thou  demandest  more  victims  ?  Men  of  America !  is 
it  not  time  to  pause  and  reflect  ? 

That  some  prominent  men  in  the  South  have  long  desired  to  cut  loose  from  the  Union  and 
establish  an  independent  Government,  is  undoubtedly  true.  Many  of  them  believe  with  Mr. 
Lincoln  in  the  "  irrepressible"  doctrine — that  all  the  States  must  be  either  slave  or  free  ;  and  as 
they  regarded  the  institution  of  slavery  a  great  blessing,  an  d  absolutely  indispensable  to  their 
existence  as  a  free  people,  they  desired  to  dissolve  the  connection  which  existed  between  the 
two  sections.  Indeed,  during  my  twelve  years'  service  in  the  House  of  Representatives  and  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  I  have  frequently  conversed  with  eminent  men  from  the  South, 
who  sincerely  believed  that  the  prosperity  and  happiness  of  both  sections  would  be  promoted 
by  a  separation.  Their  principal  argument  was  based  upon  the  hostility  of  the  North  to  the 
existence  of  slavery,  and  what  they  called  antagonistical  interests  upon  the  revenue  laws. 
They  believed  that  free  trade  and  direct  taxation  would  make  their  country  the  greatest  upon 
the  face  of  the  globe  ;  and  to  this  the  manufacturers  of  the  North  would  never  assent— that  the 
conflict  between  the  manufacturing  and  planting  interest  was  irreconcilable.  It  is  due  to  these 
gentlemen  that  I  should  say  that  their  idea,  as  avowed,  was  that  a  peaceable  dissolution  could 
be  effected.  It  is  true  I  have  heard  the  Hotspurs  from  South  Carolina  talk  as  wildly  and 
flippantly  about  dissolving  the  Union,  irrespective  of  consequences,  as  they  would  about  a  horse 
race  ;  but  they  are  entitled  to  no  more  consideration  than  the  Philiipses,  Garrisons  and  Beechers 
of  the  North.  But  without  the  fanaticism  of  the  Abolitionists  to  fan  the  flame  and  excite  the 
passions  of  the  people,  Southern  disunionists  never  could  have  placed  these  States  in  the  position 
which  they  now  occupy. 

It  seems  to  me,  however,  that  no  candid  man  can  deny  that  the  agitation  of  the  slave 
question  was  the  principal  cause  of  the  war.  The  President,  in  his  last  annual  message,  con 
cedes  this  ;  but,  in  my  judgment,  he  does  not  put  the  question  fairly.  He  says—"  The  North  was 
opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  and  the  South  in  favor  of  it."  Upon  the  application  of  Mis 
souri  for  admission  into  the  Union  in  1819-20,  the  whole  country  was  intensely  excited,  because 
the  Constitution  which  the  people  of  that  Territory  presented  tolerated  slavery.  North  and 


6 

South  were  arrayed  against  each  other,  and  the  most  violent  and  bitter  discussions  ensued.  In 
this  controversy  the  question  was  not  the  extension  of  slavery,  but  the  South  maintained  that 
the  people  of  that  Territory  were  the  sole  judges  :  and  in  the  formation  of  a  Constitution  for  their 
government,  they  had  a  right  to  determine  the  character  of  the  institutions  which  should  exist 
amongst  them,  and  that  Congress  possessed  no  power  to  prohibit  slavery.  It  is  fortunate  indt  nl 
that  there  were  a  sufficient  number  of  conservative  patriots  then  in  Congress  to  settle  the  difficulty 
which  then  threatened  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  jsome  of  these  men,  however,  from  New  Eng 
land,  were  burnt  in  effigy  upon  returning  to  their  constituents. 

It  is  not  true  that  the  South  ever  adopted  the  policy  of  extending  slavery.  All  that  the  great 
body  of  her  people  ever  claimed  was  that  their  domestic  institutions  should  not  be  interfered  with, 
and  that  they  should  be  allowed  to  remove  to  the  Territories  which  belonged  to  the  respective 
Stages,  und  be  secured  in  the  possession  of  their  property.  In  other  words,  they  claimed  equal 
rights,  equal  protection.  They  have  never  asked  for  an  outlet  for  slavery,  because  they  have  within 
their  own  liniiis  millions  of  acres  of  rich  land  which  are  as  yet  uncultivated.  Taking  the  natural 
increase  of  the  slave  population,  and  there  is  enough  territory  in  the  South  to  furnish  full  and 
profitable  employment  for  more  than  a  century  to  come.  Nor  is  the  declaration  of  the  President 
true,  that  the  Republicans  only  desired  to  prevent  the  extension  of  slavery.  A  large  majority  of 
that  party  have  labored  for  years  to  abolish  it  altogether.  One  of  their  first  acts,  when  they  came 
into  power,  was  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  Why,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  ago  (1839,)  John  Quincy  Adams,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  Northern  statesmen  in  the 
House  of  Congress,  proposed  certain  amendments  to  the  Federal  Constitution  upon  this  subject. 
He  proposed— First :  "  Hereditary  slavery  to  cease  after  the  4th  July,  1842.  All.  children  born 
after  that  day  to  be  free."  Second:  "With  the  exception  of  Florida,  no  slave  State  to  be  here 
after  admitted."  Third:  "Slavery  and  the  slave  trade  to  cease  in  the  .District  of  Columbia  on 
4th  July,  1345." 

These  amendments  were  not  pressed  upon  the  States,  because  public  sentiment  had  not 
yet  become  sufficiently  Abolitionised  to  justify  a  hope  that  they  would  be  adopted.  The  extinc 
tion  of  slavery  could  not  be  accomplished  until  its  bitter  and  unrelenting  enemies  obtained  the 
control  of  the  Federal  Government. 

During  the  past  forty  years  this  question  has  been  discussed  in  Congress,  before  popular 
assemblies,  and  in  the  Legislatures  of  the  North,  oftentimes  with  great  warmth  and  bitterness. 
Societies  during  that  period  have  existed  whose  vocation  has  been  to  wage  unceasing  warfare 
against  this  institution.  In  New  England,  and  in  some  of  the  other  free  States,  the  Abolitionists 
took  possession  of  the  pulpits,  the  schools,  the  theatres,  and  the  light  literature  of  the  day,  and 
thus  educated  a  generation  who  consider  it  a  duty  at  all  times  and  on  all  occasions  to  make  war 
upon  slavery  and  slaveholders.  That  generation,  educated  under  these  influences,  is  now  upon 
the  stage  of  action,  and  unfortunately  hold  possession  of  the  various  departments  of  the  Govern 
ment.  And  here  let  me  say,  that  no  class  of  people  as  a  body  have  contributed  so  much  toward 
producing  the  present  unfortunate  state  of  things  as  the  clergy  of  New  England.  Instead  of 
laboring  to  inculcate  the  doctrines  of  their  Divine  Master— peace  and  good  will  amongst  brethren 
— their  whole  energies  have  been  constantly  directed  to  stir  up  sectional  feelings,  and  call  into 
action  all  the  worst  passions  of  the  human  heart.  But  a  few  years  ago,  when  the  Kansas  question 
agitated  the  country,  and  threatened  the  existence  of  the  Union,  three  thousand  clergymen  of 
New  England,  instead  of  pouring  oil  upon  the  troubled  waters  and  endeavoring  to  allay  the 
storm,  plunged  into  the  "  dirty  pool  of  politics,"  and  pretending  to  speak  in  the  name  of  the 
Great  Jehovah,  sought  to  control  the  action  of  Congress.  Some  of  the  churches  were  converted 
into  arsenals,  from  which  deadly  rifles  were  distributed  to  their  infatuated  followers  who  were 
about  to  migrate  to  that  country,  with  a  view  to  exterminate  slaveholders ! 

Instead  of  loving  their  enemies  (if  they  so  regarded  them,)  and  praying  for  those  who 
despitefully  used  and  persecuted  them,  they  were  taught  to  believe  that  God  and  humanity 
demanded  that  they  should  carry  on  an  unceasing  warfare  against  their  Southern  brethren.  In 
stead  of  teaching  the  law  of  kindness  and  affection,  and  hushing  up  the  discords  of  life,  they  en 
couraged  a  bloodthirsty  spirit,  and  fanned  a  flame  which  now  threatens  the  entire  destruction  of 
the  Government. 

The  names  of  these  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing  will  go  down  to  posterity  loaded  with  in 
famy — an  infamy  as  deep  and  damning  as  that  which  rests  upon  the  first  murderer. 

It  was  through  the  influences  to  which  I  have  referred  that  a  public  sentiment  was  manu 
factured  in  some  of  the  States  which  rendered  it  impossible  to  execute  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act  of 
Congress.  In  many  of  them  laws  were  passed  in  direct  conflict  with  it.  Instead  of  returning  to 
the  owner  his  property,  as  the  law  and  good  faith  required,  they  either  concealed  or  aided  the 
slave  in  escaping  to  the  British  possessions  in  the  North. 

Indeed  the  time  had  come  when  it  was  unsafe  for  the  owner  of  slaves  to  pursue  his  prop 
erty  into  several  of  the  free  States.  Let  me  refer  you  to  the  declarations  of  some  of  the  prominent 
men  of  the  North  in  regard  to  the  '•  Fugitive  Slave  Law." 

Senator  Sumner,  a't  the  head  of  the  Committee  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  Senate,  in  one  of 
his  addresses  s%id: 

The  good  citizen  as  he  reads  the  requirements  of  this  Act  ia  filled  with  horror.  Her»  the  path  of  duty  is  clear. 
lamtiound  to  disobey  this  Act.  Sir,  I  will  not  dishonor  the  home  of  the  Pilgrims  and  of  the  Revolution  by  admitting— 
nay,  I  cannot  believe  that  this  bill  will  be  executed  here. 


7 

Josiah  Quincy,  of  the  same  State,  a  man  of  great  influence  in  Massachusetts,  said: 

The  obligation  incumbent  on  free  States  to  deliver  up  fugitive  slaves  is  a  burden,  and  i(  must  be  obliterated  from 
the  Constitution  at  all  hazards. 

A  member  of  Congress  from  Ohio,  Mr.  Giddings,  said,  on  the  9th  December,  1850,  in  a 
speech  delivered  in  that  body: 

I  will  say  to  the  President,  with  all  kindness,  but  with  unhesitating  confidence,  our  people  will  never  be  compelled 
by  the  tjayonet  or  tfa  cannon,  or  in  any  other  manner,  to  lend  any  aid  or  assistance  in  executing  that  infamous  law,  nor  witt 
they  obey  it. 

The  feelings  of  the  Northern  Republicans  generally  are  strongly  but  accurately  presented 
in  a  speech  delivered  by  a  Mr.  Wells,  of  New  York,  in  Congress,  on  the  6th  February,  1861.  He 
said:  .  . 

The  Northern  religious  man  believes  the  condition  of  the  slave  to  be  at  war  with  the  principles  of  Christianity 
and  with  the  precepts  of  the  Bible.  *  *  The  Northern  religious  man  looks,  and  will  continue  to  look,  upon  your 
institution  as  Bible-denounced  and  Heaven- accursed ;  and  no  law,  no  punishment,  no  muzzling  of  the  press,  'no  new  alien 
and  sedition  law  can  touch  its  settled  convictions. 

That  these  are  the  opinions,  the  deep  and  well  settled  convictions  of  nine-tenths  of  the 
Republicans  of  New  England,  I  have  no  doubt.  I  could  spend  the  whole  day  in  reading  extracts 
from  the  speeches  of  leading  Republicans,  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  Administration,  of  a  sim 
ilar  character  to  those  I  have  already  given. 

It  is  true  that  the  Democracy  for  many  years  held  in  check  the  Northern  fanatics,  but,  one 
by  one,  they  were  slaughtered  and  driven  from  public  life.  But  for  the  old  Jackson  Democrats 
of  that  section  the  Union  would  have  been  broken  up  long  since.  They  stood  as  a  body  guard 
around  the  Constitution,  determined  to  maintain  it  unimpaired,  by  securing  to  each  section 
the  rights  guaranteed  by^  it.  They  never  warred  upon  the  institutions  of  the  South — never  stirred 
up  sectional  strife,  but.,  in  the  spirit  of  Nationality,  recognized  her  people  as  their  equals  in  all 
respects  under  the  Constitution. 

In  1860,  the  Southern  disunionists  mustered  a  strong  force  in  the  Charleston  Convention, 
determined  either  to  nominate  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  who  recognized  the  right  of  a  State 
to  withdraw  at  pleasure  from  the  Union,  or  divide  the  Democratic  party,  and  throw  the  political 
power  of  the  Government  into  the  hands  of  the  Republicans.  This  party  they  could  safely  rely 
upon,  as  they  supposed,  to  inaugurate  a  hostile  policy  towards  that  section,  which  would  afford 
them  sufficient  grounds  to  secede.  In  this  movement  they  succeeded  in  dividing  the  Democracy, 
and  electing  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency.  He  was  the  choice,  it  is  true,  of  a  minority  of  the 
people,  but  he  was  elected  in  conformity  with  the  law  and  Constitution  of  the  Republic,  and  it 
was  the  duty  of  every  American  to  acquiesce  in  his  inauguration.  It  is  not  strange,  however,  that 
his  election  alarmed  and  exasperated  the  South.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  openly  and  boldly  advocated 
the  abolition  doctrine  of  the  "  irrepressible  conflict/'  He  said: 

I  believe  this  Government  cannot  endure  half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to  fall,  but  I  do 
expect  it  will  cease  to  be  divided.  It  will  become  all  one  thing  or  the  other.  Either  the  opponents  of  slavery  will 
arrest  the  further  spread  of  it,  and  place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  the  course  of 
ultimate  extinction,  or  its  advocates  will  push  forward  till  it  shall  become  alike  lawful  in  all  the  States— old  as  well  as 
aew,  North  as  well  as  South. 

If  this  means  anything,  it  means  that  the  war  is  to  be  waged  against  slavery  until  it  is  en-, 
tirely  extinguished. 

There  is,  I  believe,  a  controversy  between  the  friends  of  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Seward,  as 
to  which  of  these  gentlemen  first  declared  that  there  was  "  an  irrepressible  conflict  between  free 
dom  and  slavery — that  all  the  States  must  be  free  or  slave."  Without  attempting  to  settle  this 
question,  I  proceed  to  show  you  what  these  "  irrepressible  "  doctrines  are.  By  looking  to  the  de 
clarations  of  the  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  last  Presidential  election,  we  will  be  en 
abled  to  see  the  policy  which  they  intended  to  adopt  when  they  came  into  power.  I  have  read  the 
statement  of  the  President.  Next  in  order  is  his  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Seward.  He  said  in  one  of 
his  speeches  at  Cleveland,  Ohio  : 

*  *  It  (slavery)  can  and  must  be  abolished,  and  you  and  I  must  do  It.  *  *  Correct  your  cwn  error,  that 
slavery  has  constitutional  guarantees  which  may  not  be  released  and  dught  not  to  be  relinquished.  *  *  You  will 
soon  bring  the  parties  of  the  country  into  an  effective  aggression  upon  slavery.  Mark  the  words,  "You  will  soon  bring 
the  parlies  of  the  country  into  AN  EFFECTIVE  AGGKKSSION  UPON  SLAVERY!" 

Mr.  Burlingame,  sent  by  Mr.  Lincoln  to  represent  our  Government  at  the  Court  of  Austria, 
said: 

The  times  demand,  and  we  must  have  an  anti-slavery  Constitution,  an  anti-slavery  Bible,  and  an  anti-slavery 
James  Watson  Webb,  sent  out  by  Mr.  Lincoln  as  Minister  to  Brazil,  in  his  organ  said  : 

If  we  fail  at  the  ballot-box,  what  then  !  We  will  drive  slavery  back,  sword  in  hand,  and  so  help  me  God,  be 
lieving  that  to  be  right,  I  am  with  them. 

Senator  Wade,  Chairman  of  the  Committee,  in  the  Senate,  "  on  the  conducting  of  the  War/7 
said : 

There  is  really  no  Union  now  between  the  North  and  the  South,  and  I  believe  that  no  two  nations  upon  the 
earth  «ntertain  feelings  of  more  bitter  rancor  towards  each  other  than  these  two  nations  of  the  republic. 


8 

tt 

nator  Wilson,  Chairman  of  the  Military  Committee  of  the  U.  S.  Senate,  said  : 

I  tell  you  here  to-night,  that  the  agitation  of  thi«  question  of  slavery  will  continue  while  the  foot  of  a  slave 
presses  the  soil  of  the  American  republic. 

Horace  Greely,  the  editor  of  the  Tribune— a  paper,  high  in  the  confidence  of  the  Adminis 
tration — said ': 

I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Free  and  Slave  States  ought  to  be  separated.  The  Union  is  not  worth  supporting  with 
tiie  South. 

Judge  Spaulding,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  said : 

In  case  of  tlie  alternative  being  presented — of  the  continuance  of  slavery,  or  a  dissolution  of  the  Union — /  am 
for  DISSOLUTION,  and  I  care  not  how  quick  it  comes. 

Mr.  Helper,  who  holds  a  position  under  the  Administration,  wrote  a  book  during  the  Presi 
dential  campaign,  called  the  "  Impending  Crisis,"  which,  after  being  endorsed  over  the  signatures  of 
sixty-rigid  Republican  members  of  Congress,  was  printed,  and  millions  of  copies  scattered  broad- cast 
over  the  North  and  West.  Secretary  Seward,  in  a  letter  to  the  publisher  of  the  work,  says  : 

It  seems  to  me  a  work  of  great  merit— rich,  yet  accurate  in  statistical  information  and  logical  analysis,  and  I 
do  not  doubt  that  it  will  exert  a  great  influence  on  the  public  mind  in  favor  of  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice. 

Now  I  propose,  fellow-citizens,  to  give  you  a  few  extracts  from  this  valuable  work,  so  highly 
endorsed  by  the  most  distinguished  men  of  the  Republican  party : 

First — That  it  is  a  solemn  duty  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  South,  or  die  in  the  attempt. — Page  176. 

Second— That  no  man  can  be  a  true  patriot  without  first  becoming  an  Abolitionist.— Page  179. 

Third — That  against  slave-holders  as  a  bouy  we  (that  is  the  Republican  endorsers)  wage  an  exterminating  war. 

Fourth — That  slaveholders  must  emancipate  negroes,  or  we  will  emancipate  them  for  you. — Page  196- 

Sixth— That  slaveholders  are  nuisances,  and  that  it  is  an  important  duty  to  abate  nuisances.  We  propose, 
therefore,  to  abolish  slavery,  than  which  strychnine  itself  is  less  a  nuisance. — Page  130. 

Seventh— That  slaveholders  are  more  cruel  than  common  murderers.— Page  149. 

Eighth — That  all  slaveholders  are  under  a  perpetual  license  to  murder. — Page  141. 

Ninth— That  if  the  negroes  had  a  chance,  they  would  be  delighted  to  cut  their  masters'  throats.— Page  158. 

Tenth — That  we  are  wedded  to  one  purpose,  from  which  no  earthly  power  can  divorce  us.  We  are  determined 
to  abolish  slavery  at  all  hazards. — Page  140. 

Eleventh — That  there  is  scarcely  a  spark  of  honor  or  magnanimity  amongst  slaveholders. — Page  153. 

Tu-elfth— That  now  is  the  appropriate  time  to  strike  for  freedom  in  the  South.— Page  153. 

The  following  programme  of  organization  is  recommended  : 

First — Thorough  organization  and  independent  political  action  on  the  part  of  non-slaveholding  whites  of  the 
South. 

Second — Ineligibility  of  slaveholders — never  another  vote  to  the  trafficer  in  human  flesh. 

TJtird— No  cooperation  with  slaveholders  in  politics,  no  fellowship  with  them  in  religion,  no  affiliation  with  them 
ia  society. 

Fourth— So  patronage  to  slaveholding  merchants,  no  bequests  to  slavewaiting  hotels,  no  fees  to  slaveholdicg 
lawyers,  no  employment  to  slaveholding  physicians,  no  audience  to  slaveholding  parsons. 

Fifth — No  recognition  of  pro-slavery  men,  except  as  ruffians,  outlaws  and  criminals. 

Sixth — Thus,  terror-engenders  of  the  South,  have  we  fully  and  frankly  defined  our  position.  We  have  no  modi 
fications  to  propose,  no  compromises  to  offer,  nothing  to  retract.  Frown,  hiss,  fret,  foam,  prepare  your  weapons!, 
threat,  strike,  shoot,  stab,  bring  on  civil  war,  dissolve  the  Union — nay,  annihilate  the  solar  system,  if  you  will — do  nil 
this  more,  less  better,  worse  anything — do  wnat  you  will,  sirs  you  can  neither  foil  nor  intimidate  us.  Our  purpo.^e 
'  is  as  firmly  fixed  as  the  eternal  pillars  of  Heaven.  We  have  determined  to  ABOLISH  SLAVERY,  AND,  SO  HELP  US 
GOD,  ABOLISH  IT  WE  WILL.  Take  this  to  bed  with  you  to-night,  sirs,  and  think  about  it— dream  over  it,  and  let  us 
know  how  you  feel  in  the  morning. 

Now.  these  were  the  public  declarations  of  the  leaders  of  the  successful  party  at  that  elec* 
tion.  Is  it  strange  that  the  Southern  people  were  exasperated  to  madness  ?  You  sovvcd  the  seeds 
of  dissolution  broadcast. -and  now  you  affect  to  be  surprised  that  it  has  produced  anything!  The 
South  assumed  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  supporters  were  sincere  in  the  expression  of  these  senti 
ments,  and  that  the  President  intended  to  administer  the  Government  in  accordance  with  them. 
But,  Sir,  there  is  nothing  in  all  this  to  justify  rebellion  or  revolution.  If,  as  they  said  (and  as  I 


vided  in  that  instrument.  They  were  bound,  as  Americans,  to  exhaust  their  peaceful  remedy  be 
fore  they  resorted  to  force.  Thousands  of  Northern  men,  like  myself,  were  willing  to  give  them 
guarantees  in  the  Constitution,  to  protect  them  in  their  property  and  secure  to  them  a  perfect 
equality  with  the  other  States  in  the  Territories  and  elsewhere.  The  old-line  Democrats,  who  be 
lieve  in  the  equality  of  the  States  and  the  duty  of  the  Federal  Government  to  protect  every  spe 
cies  of  property  under  the  Constitution,  would  have  stood  by  them  in  the  demand.  We  have  al 
ways  believed  that  it  was  impossible  to  maintain  the  Union  except  by  securing  to  each  section  the 
undisturbed  enjoyment  of  its  constitutional  rights.  But  those  of  us  who  had  held  back  the  horde 
of  Northern  fanatics,  were  suddenly  abandoned,  the  property  of  the  Federal  Government  seized, 
and  our  good  old  flag— dear  to  every  northern  Democrat,  and  to  us  as  sacred  as  the  honor  of  our 
wives  and  daughters — rudely  assaulted  and  trampled  upon.  Did  they  suppose  that  our  hostility 
to  the  Abolitionists,  who  for  years  had  been  plotting  the  destruction  of  the  Government,  was  so 
strong  that  we  would  not  feel  the  insult  offered  to  our  national  emblem  ? 


No,  Sir !  No,  Sir !  Much  as  we  hate  these  fanatics,  we  love  the  honor  of  our  country  more. 
If  we  had  tamely  submitted  to  this  gross  insult,  we  would  have  been  unworthy  of  the  name  of 
Americans — unworthy  of  a  place  amongst  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth. 

I  will  not  stop  to  inquire  how  far  the  conduct  of  the  President  in  attempting  to  re-inforce 
Fort  Sumter,  and  the  vague  and  indefinite  language  of  his  inaugural  address,  provoked  the  assault 
to  which  I  have  referred.  But  this  I  will  say,  that  I  believe  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Admin 
istration  to  have  avoided— honorably  avoided— a  collision  with  these  States.  I  grant  you,  a  bit 
terness  of  feeling  had  been  engendered  in  the  South  towards  New  England  particularly,  in  conse 
quence  of  the  incessant  warfare  waged  agains't  their  institutions,  which  rendered  it  quite  difficult 
to  live  peaceably  together.  The  man  of  New  England  looked  upon  the  slaveholder  as  a  brute 
who  violated  every  day  the  laws  of  God  and  humanity,  whilst  the  Southern  man  regarded  him  as 
a  thief  who  would  steal  his  property  whenever  an  opportunity  was  presented.  It  would  be  some 
what  difficult  for  two  men  entertaining  these  opinions  of  each  other  to  live  very  happily  together 
under  the  same  roof. 

But  previous  quarrels  between  the  two  sections  had  been  amicably  adjusted,  and  I  doubt 
not,  if  that  spirit  of  conciliation  and  compromise  which  framed  our  Federal  Constitution,  had 
pervaded  the  Republican  party  after  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  assurances  given  that  the  in 
stitutions  of  the  South  would  not  be  interfered  with,  this,  too,  could  have  been  settled  without  a 
resort  to  arms.  At  all  events,  the  revolution  could  have  been  confined  within  narrow  limits. 

Let  us  look  to  the  record  for  proof  of  this  assertion.  The  people  of  Virginia,  after  South 
Carolina  and  the  other  Cotton  States  had  seceded,  by  an  overwhelming  majority  refused  to  follow 
them.  The  votes  in  the  Convention  there  assembled  to  decide  upon  her  position  showed  a  majority 
of  seventy  against  Secession.  North  Carolina  had  refused  by  a  decisive  vote  to  withdraw  from 
the  Union.  Tennessee  by  a  majority  of  some  thirty  thousand  had  also  refused,  and  the  question  in 
Arkansas  had  been  postponed  for  discussion.  These  four  States  were  all  in  the  Union  at  the  time 
the  President  of  the  United  States  issued  his  Proclamation,  calling  for  75,000  volunteers  (not  to 
protect  the  Capital,  as  is  often  said)  but  "  to  suppress  the  combination  and  to  cause  the  laws  to 
be  duly  executed."  Seeing,  then,  that  the  policy  of  the  Administration  was  to  make  war  upon  the 
States,  and  by  the  military  power  bring  them  back  into  the  Union,  the  four  States,  which  I  have 
named,  at  once  seceded. 

I  do  not  believe  that  a  majority  of  the  people  in  any  of  the  States  at  the  outset,  except 
South  Carolina,  were  in  favor  of  seceding  from  the  Union.  That  State  has  not  been  loyal  to  the 
Federal  Government  since  1832.  In  that  year  a  convention  was  held  in  Charleston,  and  her  people 
solemnly  declared  that  the  revenue  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  particularly  the  tariff  acts  of 
1828  and  of  July,  1832,  should  not  be  executed  within  her  limits.  If  the  General  Government  re 
sorted  to  force,  Carolina  would  secede  from  the  Union.  This  was  the  first  formal  declaration  by  a 
State  of  the  ri,i>ht  of  Secession.  It  is  true,  however,  that  New  England,  through  her  public  men, 
as  early  as  1790,  threatened  to  secede  from  the  Union  unless  the  Federal  Government  assumed  the 
debts  contracted  by  the  States  in  the  prosecution  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  In  the  "  Memoirs  and 
Correspondence  "  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  vol.  4,  pages  448  and  449, 1  find  this  language : 

So  high  were  the  feuds  excited  by  this  subject,  that  on  its  rejection  business  was  suspended.  Congress  met 
and  artjournevl  from  day  to  day  without  doing  anything,  parties  being  too  much  out  of  temper  to  do  Business  together. 
The  Eustei  n  members  particularly,  who  with  Smith  from  South  Carolina  were  the  principal  gamblers  in  these  scenes, 
threatened  Se  cession  and  dissolution.  *  *  I  thought  it  impossible  that  reasonable  men,  consulting  together  coolly, 
could  fail  by  some,  mutual  sacrifices  of  opinion  to  form  a  compromise  which  was  to  save  this  Union. 

A  compromise  was  effected,  the  State  debt  assumed,  and,  as  Mr.  Jefferson  on  the  same  page 
says,  "a  concomitant  measure,  to  sweeten  it  a  little  to  the  South,  was  adopted."  That  ''concomitant  measure" 
was  the  location  of  the  Federal  Government  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac! 

I  allude  to  this  as  a  historical  fact,  that  our  fathers  had  difficulties  to  encounter  at  the  outset 
of  the  Government,  which  had  to  be  adjusted  by  concession  and  compromise. 

The  heresy  of  Secession  was  fully  and  ably  exposed  in  the  proclamation  of  that  illustrious 
statesman  who  then — fortunately  for  the  Republic — occupied  the  Presidential  chair.  A- compro 
mise  was  effected,  chi'.  fly  through  the  instrumentality  of  that  distinguished  Kentuckian  whose 
name  is  familiar  to  you  all.  South  Carolina  acqmesed,  but  she  was  not  satisfied.  Her  people, 
however,  knew  well  that  if  an  effort  was  made  to  carry  out  the  doctrine  of  nullification  that  man 
of  iron  will  and  heroic  courage  had  said: 

The  dictates  of  a  high  duty  oblige  me  solemnly  to  announce  that  you  cannot  succeed.  Th«  laws  of  the  United 
States  must  be  executed.  *  *  Disunion  by  armed  iorce  is  treason. 

It  is  quite  certain  that  if  they  had  not  yielded  he  would  have  brought  down  at  once  upon 
the  heads  of  her  people  the  whole  military  and  naval  power  of  the  Republic.  He  would  have 
occupied  every  town  and  hamlet  within  her  limits,  and  scattered  her  rebellious  troops  like  chaff 
before  the  wind. 

Let  us  look  for  one  moment  at  Massachusetts,  to  protect  whose  manufactories  South  Caro 
lina,  in  this  contest,  alleged  that  she  was  heavily  taxed.  She  led  off  in  the  organization  of  socie 
ties  to  war  upon  slavery.  Many  of  her  prominent  men  have  again  and  again,  during  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century,  declared  that  they  would  continue  to  agitate  this  question  until  slavery  was 
abolished.  Affiliated  societies  sprung"  up  in  most  of  the  Northern  States,  who  contributed  their 


10 

influence  towards  arraying  section  against  section,  and  producing  that  bitter  feeling  of  hostility 
out  of  which  this  war  emanated. 

They  increased  in  strength  from  year  to  year,  notwithstanding  the  Father  of  the  Republic 
had  solemnly  warned  them,  in  his  Farewell  Address,  against  the  dangers  of  geographical  parties 
and  sectional  organizations—  and  thus  succeeded  in  sowing  the  seeds  of  dissolution.  In  1842,  Mr. 
John  Quincy  Adams  presented  a  petition  from  Haverhill,  Massachusetts,  requesting  Congress 
"  to  take  the  necessary  steps  to  dissolve  the  " 


It  is  true  that  so  strong  was  the  popular  feeling  generally  in  New  England  against  the  wars 
of  1812,  that  a  Convention  was  held  at  Hartford,  in  Connecticut,  and  serious  thoughts  were  enter 
tained  of  withdrawing  from  the  Union,  and  making  her  own  peace  with  the  enemy  ;  yet  this  is 
the  first  formal  proposition  to  break  up  the  Government.  Mr.  Adams  desired  to  have  the  petition 
referred  to  a  Select  Committee,  and  in  the  course  of  debate  upon  this  motion,  he  said: 

I  want  to  respond  to  them  ,  and  tell  them  that  it  is  not  time  for  these  people,  who  are  emphatically  oppressed,  to 
•eek  for  a  redresa  of  grievances  in  this  way. 

No,  Sir  ;  the  time  had  not  yet  come  to  break  up  the  Union  !  I  well  remember  (for  I  was 
then  one  of  the  youngest  members  of  the  House,)  the  violent  discussion  which  ensued,  and  the 
terrible  anathemas  heaped  by  Southern  members  upon  the  heads  of  these  Northern  men  who  sought 
to  dissolve  the  Union. 

The  generation  of  heroes  and  patriots  who  once  adorned  the  old  Bay  State  have  passed 
away.  Her  Hancocks  and  Adams  have  been  succeeded  by  such  men  as  Sumner,  Wilson  and  An 
drew—men  who  have  labored  in  season  and  out  of  season,  with  an  industry  that  never  flags,  to 
break  up  the  Union  as  the  only  means  by  which  slavery  could  be  extinguished. 

Who  doubts  that  a  large  majority  of  the  people  of  New  England  prefer  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union  to  a  continuance  of  slavery  ?  And  here—  lest  I  be  misunderstood—  let  me  say  that  in  all 
these  States  there  is  a  large  and  respectable  body  of  men  who  have  nobly  battled  for  the  equality 
of  the  States  and  the  Constitutional  rights  of  every  section  of  the  Confederacy. 

In  185-i  I  canvassed  portions  of  New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut,  in  company  with  Mr. 
Orr,  of  South  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Cobb,  of  Georgia,  both  of  whom  now  occupy  high  positions  in  the 
new  Government.  The  question  of  slavery  and  the  Constitutional  rights  of  the  States  was  fully 
discussed  by  us,  and  we  met  with  a  kind  and  most  hospitable  reception  everywhere.  Devoted  to 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution,  they  were  fighting  manfully  for  the  principles  which  we  promul 
gated.  The  recent  election  in  these  two  States  prove  conclusively,  that  although  in  a  minority, 
(owing  to  the  Federal  Government  having  sent  a  large  military  force  into  the  States,  ostensibly 
to  "  recruit,"  but  to  control  the  ballot-box,)  they  are  still  holding  on  to  the  good  old  Democratic 
ship. 

I  come  now  back  to  the  question:  Could  this  war  have  been  honorably  avoided?  The 
records  of  Congress  will  show  that  when  the  venerable  and  patriotic  Crittenden,  who  fully  appre 
ciated  the  impending  danger,  came  forward  in  Congress  with  propositions  to  adjust  the  difficulty, 
and  save  the  country  ffom  the  horrors  of  civil  war,  the  Republicans  gave  them  a  cold  reception, 
and  finally  rejected  them.  It  was  on  that  occasion  this  old  patriot  gave  utterance  to  the  follow 
ing  language-: 

/  declare  to  you  that  it  is  my  solemn  coninction  that  unless  something  is  done,  and  something  equivalent  to  this  proposi 
tion,  we  shallbia  SEPARATE  AND  DIVIDED  PEOPLE  IN  SIX  MONTHS  FROM  THIS  TIME,  That  is  my  Jinn 
conviction.  It  is  my  sad  and  melancholy  conviction  that  that  will  be  the  consequence. 

On  the  3d  January,  1861,  Judge  Douglas  made  his  last  (revised)  speech  in  the  Senate  on  the 
great  question  of  restoring  the  Union.  It  was  just  such  a  speech  as  you  would  expect  from  one 
whose  whole  heart  was  devoted  to  the  Union.  Speaking  of  the  Crittenden  resolution,  he  said: 

I  believe  this  to  be  a  fair  basis  of  amicable  adjustment.  If  you  of  the  Republican  side  are  not  willing  to  accept 
this  (his  own  proposition,)  or  that  of  the  Senator  from  Kentucky,  (Mr.  Crittenden,)  pray  tell  us  what  you  are  willing 
to  do  ?  I  address  the  inquiry  to  the  Republicans  alone,  for  in  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  (Judge  Douglas  being  a 
member.)  a  few  days  ago,  KVERY  MEMBER  FKOM  THE  SOUTH,  INCLUDING  THOSE  FROM  THE  COTTON  STATES,  MESSRS.  TOOMBS  .AND 

DAVIS,  EXPRESSED  THKIR  READINESS  TO  ACCEPT  THK  PROPOSITION  OF   MY   VENERABLE  FRIEND  FROM  KENTUCKY  AS  A  FINAL  3KTTLK- 

KKXT  OK  THK  CONTROVERSY,  if  tendered  and  sustained  by  the  Republican  members. 

I  regret  the  determination  to  which  I  apprehend  the  Republican  Senators  have  come  —  to  make  no  adjustment, 
entertain  no  proposition,  and  listen  to  no  compromise  of  the  matter  in  controversy.  *  *  Can  we  make  no  concession,  no 
sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  our  children,  that  they  may  have  a  country  and  a  Government  to  protect  them  when  party 
platforms  and  political  honors  shall  avail  us  nothing  in  the  day  of  final  reckoning. 

And  here  you  must  allow  me  to  make  a  slight  digression. 

It  has  always  seemed  strange  to  me  that  a  large  number  of  those  in  this  State  who  sup 
ported  Judge  Douglas  for  the  Presidency,  in  1800,  should  be  found  in  political  alliance  with  the 
Republicans  —  a  party  against  whom  he  had  battled  most  manfully  all  his  life.  He  entered  Con 
gress  two  years  after  I  had  become  a  member  of  that  body,  and  the  records  will  show  that  at  that 
early  day  both  of  us  were  satisfied  that  the  Abolitionists  were  determined  to  break  up  the  Union 
as  the  only  means  by  which  slavery  could  be  abolished.  As  I  was  its  enemy  then,  when  it  had  no 
power  except  to  sow  the  seeds  of  dissension,  so  I  am  its  enemy  now  when  it  holds  the  control  of 
the  Government,  and  has  inaugurated  its  policy  upon  the  ruins  of  republican  institutions.  All  the 
energies  of  my  early  manhood  were  directed  to  resist  its  progress,  and  I  shall  go  down  to  the  grave 


11  « 

with  the  firm  conviction  that  this  party,  under  the  name  of  philanthropy,  has  entailed  misery  and 
wretchedness  upon  four  millions  of  the  African  race,  and  destroyed  the  best  and  f: 
ment  that  ever  existed.  ,     .,, 

The  Congressional  records  show,  that  after  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  no  one  labored  with 
more  ability  and  zeal  to  avert  the  impending  storm  than  Judge  Douglas.  He  was  a  member,  as  I 
have  already  said  of  the  Committee  of  Thirteen,  appointed  to  draw  up  some  plan  of  pacification 
to  save  the  Union,  and  although  he  had  a  proposition  of  his  own,  he  gave  a  heaity  and  cheerful 
support  to  the  one  submitted  by  Mr.  Crittenden.  I  have  recently  turned  to  the  debates  imme- 
diatelv  preceding  this  war,  and  I  propose  to  make  liberal  quotations  from  his  speeches,  in  order 
that  his  friends,  who  may  not  have  had  an  opportunity,  may  see  precisely  where  here  he  stood. 
On  the  15th  March,  1861,  in  the  Senate,  he  said: 

In  my  opinion  we  must  choose,  and  that  promptly,  between  one  of  three  lines  of  policy: 
First— lux  RESTORATION  AXD  PBKSKRVATION  OF  THE  UNION,  by  such  amendments  to  the  Constitution  as  will  ensi 
the  domestic  tranquility   and  equality  to  the  States,  and  thus  restore  peace,  unity  and  fraternity  to  the  whole 

a  T Second— A  PKACKAnLK  DISSOLUTION  OF  THB  U.MON,  by  recognizing  the  independence  of  such  States  as  refuse  to 
remain  in  the  Union  without  such  Constitutional  amendments,  and  the  establishment  of  a  liberal  system  of  commer 
cial  and  social  intercourse  with  them  by  treaties  of  commerce  and  amity. 

Tlrird— WAR,  with  a  view  to  the  subjugation  and  military  occupation  of  the  States  which  have  seceded,  or  may 
secede,  from  the  Union. 

In  speaking  upon  these  propositions,  he  says:  "  The  first  is  the  best  and  the  last  is  the 
worst."  He  then  goes  on  to  remark: 

If  we  c*n  make  such  amendments  to  the  Constitution  as  will  satisfy  the  Border  States  which  are  now  in  the 
Union,  we  will  create  a  Union  party  in  the  seceded  States  that  will  bring  them  back  by  the  voluntary  action  of  their 
own  people.  You  ran  restore  and  preserve  the  Union  in  that  way.  You  CAN  DO  m.\  NO  OTHER.  War  is  disunion,  war 
ix  a  final,  eternal  separation.  Hence  1  do  not  mean,  if  I  can  prevent  it,  that  the  enemies  of  the  Union— men  Pl°ttlQ2 
to  destroy 
and  collu 

unionist          ,  ,  — ,  , 

of  peaceable  secession  and  a  recognition  of  independence;  the  other  is  in  favor  of  war  as  the  surest  means  of  accomplisn- 
lishing  the  object,  and  of  making  the  separation  final  and  eternal.  I  am  a  Union  man,  and  hence  against  war;  out  if 
the  Union  must  be  temporarily  broken  by  revolution,  and  the  establishment  of  a  de  facto  government  by  some  ot  tne 
Slates,  let  no  act  be  done  that  will  prevent  restoration  and  future  preservation.  Peace  is  the  only  policy  that  can  leao 
to  that  result. 

Now,  fellow  citizens,  does  any  one  doubt  that  if  the  policy  advocated  by  Judge  Douglaa 
had  been  adopted  the  integrity  of  the  Union  could  have  been  preserved  ?  Again  he  says: 

The  people  of  the  South  believe  they  are  in  danger.  They  believe  thit  you  meditate  an  invasion  of  their  Consti 
tutional  rights.1!  The v  believe  that  you  intend  to  stir  up  servile  insurrections,  and  stimulate  the  slaves  to  cut  the  throats 
of  their  masters,  and  their  wives  and  children.  Believing  this,  they  will  act  upon  this  belief,  unless  you  will  remove 
all  cause  of  apprehension.  Unless  you  do,  disunion  is  inevitable;  whether  peaceably  or  by  civil  war,  God  only  can 
tell.  *  *  Whenever  a  Government  has  refused  to  listen  to  the  complaints  of  the  people,  and  have  attempted  to  silence  thtir 
murmurs  by  the  bayonet,  they  have  paid  the  penalty. 

To  this  speech,  every  word  of  which  breathes  the  true  spirit  of  patriotism,  the  leader  of  the 
Republican  party  (Mr.  Wilson,  of  Massachusetts,)  responded,  in  what  Judge  Douglas  properly 
designated  '•  a  petulant,  irritable,  irritating  personal  attack."  Amongst  other  things,  Mr.  Wilson 
said: 

He  (Douglas)  stands  here  quite  alone,  and  he  is  hardly  more  powerful  before  the  nation.  I  say  to  that  Senator, 
and  I  want  him  and  his  friends  to  understand  it.  that  the  Administration  which  has  just  come  into  power  will  take  it« 
time  to  deliberate,  to  act,  and  declare  it*  policy,  and  that  it  does  not  select  him  as  its  exponent." 

They  did  take  time  to  declare  their  policy,  and  waited  until  the  fires  of  civil  war  were 
blazing  all  over  the  country !  Judge  Douglas  was.  rebuked,  because  fully  appreciating  the  dan 
ger,  he  attempted  to  get  a  word  from  the  Republican  leaders  which  would  avert  the  impending 
storm.  He  said: 

Why  not  let  the  people  know  what  the  policy  is?  The  country  is  now  overwhelmed  with  doubt  and  anxiety; 
business  is  suspended;  public  confidence  is  destroyed;  commerco  in  disturbed;  bankruptcy  is  staring  your  best  mer 
chants  in  the  face.  One  word  from  tht  White  Htvuse  will  save  them  from  ruin — one  word  will  gladden  the  heart  of  every 
patriU  in  the  land.  Let  that  word  be  spoken,  and  let  that  word  be  PEACE,  and  there  will  be  such  a  slwut  of  joy  resounding 
through  the  land  as  has  not  been  witnessed  since  the  acknowkdgment  of  independence.  Why  not  allow  it  to  be  done? 

No,  fellow  citizens,  the  "word"  was  not  spoken,  and  cast  your  eyes  over  this  once  fair  land 
and  see  the  consequence  ! 

Judge  Douglas  saw  that  these  men  intended  to  bring  on  civil  war  as  a  means  to  effect  their 
{(  cherished  object,"  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  and  he  said  :  **  I  expect  to  give  these  gentle 
men  some  trouble  during  this  Congress.  I  know  their  scheme.  I  do  not  mean  that  they  shall 
plunge  this  country  into  war."  In  this,  unfortunately  for  us  all,  Judge  Douglas  failed.. 

Two  days  before  the  close  of  that  session  (25th  March,  1861.)  which  terminated  the  illus 
trious  career  of  this  statesman,  when  taunted  by  a  Republican  Senator  with  his  defeat  at  the 
Presidential  election,  he  said:  "  You  can  boast  that  you  have  defeated  me,  but  you  have  defeated  your 
country  ivith  me.  You  can  boast  that  you  have  triumphed  over  me,  but  you  have  triumphed  over  the 
unity  of  the  States.  Your  triumph  has  brought  disunion,  and  God  only  knows  what  consequences 
may  grow  out  of  it." 


The  ppeoches  from  which  I  quote  will  be  found  in  2d  vol.  Con.  Globe,  2d  Session  36th  Con 
gress,  pages  14CO,  1461  and  1503. 

Yes,  says  he,  "  One  word  from  the  White  House  will  save  the  country  from  ruin.  Let  that 
word  be  peace." 

Now.  fellow  citizens,  if  the  President  had  assurred  the  South,  that  notwithstanding  all  the 
declarations  made  anterior  to  his  election,  he  did  not  intend  to  make  war  upon  their  institutions 
by  the  inauguration  of  the  "  irrepressible  policy,-'  and  that  they  should  have  equal  rights,  equal 
protection,  the  Union  could  have  been  restored.  But  Congre?s  adjourned,  and  the  President  de 
clared  his  intention,  as  Judge  Douglas  seems  to  have  anticipated,  '•  to  protect  public  property, 
enforce  the  laws,  collect  revenue,  and  reinforce  Fort  Sumter. 

41 1  do  the  wrong,  and  first  begin  the  brawl; 
The  secret  mischief  that  I  get  abroad 
I  lay  unto  the  grievous  charge  of  others." 

Fellow-citizens :  I  think  I  have  shown  you  that  this  war  could  have  been  avoided.  But 
no.  The  Republicans,  who  had  been  struggling  for  forty  years  to  obtain  the  possession  of  the 
Government  and  inaugurate  their  Abolition  policy,  declared  that  the  time  for  compromises  had 
passed  by.  The  doctrines  of  the  "  Chicago  Platform  "  must  be  reduced  to  practice,  no  matter 
what  the  consequences  might  be  to  the  country.  In  the  language  of  one  of  their  Senators, 
(Chandler)  ;<  a  little  blood  letting  was  necessary,  in  order  to  make  the  Union  desirable." 

"No,"  says  a  leading  Republican  in  Congress  from  Ohio,  "I  will  not  compromise,  because 
slavery  is  a  sin,  an  outrage  against  humanity,  and  an  insult  to  God.  Disguise  it  as  you  will,  it  is 
still  the  crowning  iniquity  and  most  ghastly  atrocity.  By  no  vote  of  mine  shall  it  ever  be 
strengthened  or  countenanced.  You  may  dissolve  the  Union  if  you  can."  Appendix  Con  Globe, 
2d  Session,  page  133. 

Another  member  of  Congress,  from  Indiana,  says :  "  I  see  nothing  to  compromise,  nothing 
to  concede,  and  therefore  I  will  give  none  whatever.  *  *  Mr.  Speaker,  I  will  compromise  no 
longer  with  slavery."  In  these  sentiments  a  large  majority  of  the  Republicans  in  both  branches 
of  Congress  concurred.  These  were  the  declarations  of  the  party  about  to  come  into  power, 
when  Northern  Democrats  under  the  lead  of  Crittenden  and  Douglas  were  attempting  to  allay  the 
storm  and  preserve  the  integrity  of  the  Union.  "  No  compromise— dissolve  the  Union  if  you  can." 

After  a  careful  review  of  the  whole  ground,  I  believe,  most  sincerely  believe,  that  if  the 
President  and  his  advisers  had  manifested  that  fraternal  spirit  of  conciliation  and  compromise 
which  our  fathers  exhibited  in  1787,  the  peace  of  the  country  could  have  been  maintained.  Pos 
terity,  I  doubt  not,  will  hold  them  responsible  for  this  terrible  conflict  amongst  brethren. 

I  must  now  refer  to  the  avowed  object  for  which  this  war  was  to  be  prosecuted.  At  the 
outset,  in  order  that  the  question  might  be  clearly  understood,  the  following  resolution,  offered 
by  Mr.  Crittenden  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  was  adopted  with  but  two  dissenting  votes. 

That  in  this  national  emergency,  Congress  banishing  all  feelings  of  passion  or  resentment,  will  recollect  only 
its  duty  to  the  whole  country.  That  this  war  is  not  waged,  on  their  part,  in  any  spirit  of  oppression,  or  for  any  pur 
pose  of  conquest  or  subjugation,  or  purpose  of  overthrowing  or  interfering  with  the  rights  or  established  institutions 
of  those  States,  but  1o  defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution,  and  to  preserve  the  Union  with  all  the 
dignity,  equality  and  right*  of  the  several  States  unimpaired,  and  that  as  soon  as  these  objects  are  accomplished,  the 
war  ought  to  cease. 

A  resolution  of  a  similar  character  passed  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  30  to  5.  Four  of  the 
negative  votes  were  given  by  Senators  who  were  opposed  to  the  war.  In  addition  to  this  we  had 
the  declaration  of  the  Secretary  of  State  in  his  instructions  to  our  Minister  in  England.  He  said 
(under  date  of  April  22d,  1861) :  "  The  rights  of  the  States,  AND  THE  CONDITION  OF  EVERY  HUMAX 
BEING  in  them,  will  remain  subject  to  exactly  ,the  same  laws  and  forms  of  administration,  whether  the  revolution 
shall  succeed  or  whether  it  shall  fail!  Their  constitutions  and  laivs,  customs,  habits  and  institutions  in  either 
case  will  remain  the  same." 

The  Secretary  of  War  was  equally  explicit.  He  said  :  "  This  is  a  war  for  the  Union,  for  the 
preservation  of  all  the  constitutional  rights  of  tlie  States,  and  the  citizens  of  all  the  Slates  of  the  Union." 

Another  member  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  Cabinet,  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in  a  public  ad 
dress,  delivered  in  August,  1861,  used  this  language  :  "This  is  not  a  war  upon  the  institution  of  Slavery, 
but  a  war  for  the  restoration  of  the  Union  and  the  protection  of  all  citizens  in  the  South  as  well  ax  in  the  North 
in  their  constitutional  righ  ts.  There  could  not  be  found  in  South  Carolina  a  man  more  anxious, 
religiously  and  scrupulously,  to  obterve  all  the  features  of  the  Constitution  relating  to  sl/tvery,  than  Abra 
ham  Lincoln."  The  leading  Republicans  in  both  branches  of  Congress  took  care  to  express 
similar  sentiments. 

These  are  the  assurances  which  Judge  Douglas  labored  so  hard  to  obtain  from  the  Admin 
istration  in  1861,  when  the  compromise  measures  were  pending  in  Congress.  "  One  word."  sajs 
he,  "  from  the  White  House  will  restore  peace  to  the  country."  When  war  broke  out.  and  it  be 
came  necessary  to  secure  the  aid  of  Democrats  in  carrying  it  on,  then,  and  not  till  then,  the 
declaration  is  made  that  the  institutions  of  the  South  are  not  to  be  interfered  with ;  that  our  only 
object  is  to  maintain  the  Constitution  and  restore  the  Union  as  it  was ! 

These  declarations,  repeated  in  every  possible  form,  relieved  the  Northern  Democracy  from 
the  apprehension  that  the  President  and  his  party  intended  to  take  advantage  of  the  war  to  carry 
out  their  "irrepressible  doctrines"  and  strike  at  the  institutions  of  the  South;  and  thousands  and 


13 

•hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  gallant  Democrats  of  the  North  and  West,  who  had  all  their  lives 
warred  against  the  Abolitionists  and  their  creed,  rushed  to  the  field  of  strife.  Their  object  was 
to  vindicate  the  honor  of  our  flag  which  had  been  rudely  assaulted,  and  to  maintain  the  Consti 
tution  and  preserve  the  Union.  They  did  not  take  up  arms  to  fight  against  slavery  or  to  reduce 
to  practice  the  principles  of  the  Abolitionists,  but  in  the  language  of  the  deliberate  resolve  of 
Congress,  "  NOT  FOB  THE  PURPOSE  OF  CONQUEST  OR  SUBJUGATION,  OR  FOR  THE  PURPOSE  OF  OVERTHROW 
ING  OR  INTERFERING  WITH  THE  RIGHTS  OR  ESTABLISHED  INSTITUTIONS  OF  THOSE  STATES,  BUT  TO  DEFEND 
AND  MAINTAIN  THE  SUPREMACY  OF  THE  CONSTITUTION  AND  TO  PRESERVE  THE  UNION  WITH  ALL  THE  DIG 
NITY,  EQUALITY  AXD  RIGHTS  OF  THE  SEVERAL  STATES  UNIMPAIRED." 

How  changed  the  scene !  The  army  is  raised,  the  Democrats  are  enlisted,  and  now  in  the 
opinion  of  the  President  the  time  has  arrived  when  his  irrepressible  principles  should  be  in 
augurated  !  On  the  1st  of  January  last  he  issues  his  famous  proclamation  for  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves !  By  this  master  stroke  of  policy  he  not  only  silences  his  ancient  enemy,  the  Dem 
ocracy,  but  absolutely  compels  them  to  fight  for  his  principles  !  Tens  of  thousands  of  that  good  old 
party  have  already  been  slaughtered  in  battling  to  carry  out  doctrines  which  they  alwadys  de 
tested  !  And  the  work  is  still  going  on  !  The  enlisted  Democrat  is  still  held  to  service,  and  the 
resignation  of  the  officer  rejected!  If  a  private  citizen  complains,  the  pack  howls  "treason! 
treason  !"  Suppose  that  the  Administration  had  announced  at  the  beginning  that  the  war  was  to 
be  prosecuted  until  slavery  was  entirely  abolished  and  the  whole  South  subjugated,  how  many  of 
the  gallant  young  Democrats  of  my  native  State  would  have  gone  into  the  contest?  How  many 
of  the  sound  national  Democrats  of  the  great  West  would  have  rallied  under  your  flag  ?  And 
this  leads  me  to  refer  to  the  repeated  usurpations  of  power  and  violations  of  the  Constitution  by 
the  Republican  party.  I  am  not  disposed  to  be  captions,  nor  do  I  deny  that  when  the  country  is 
engaged  in  a  civil  war,  threatening  the  very  existence  of  the  Government,  it  is  difficult  to  confine 
in  all  cases  the  Executive,  who  is  commander-in-chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  within  the  limited 
sphere  prescribed  for  him  in  the  Constitution.  To  justify,  however,  a  violation  of  that  instru 
ment,  a  clear  case  of  ovcnvhdming  necessity  must  be  apparent.  I  do  not  know  that  I  can  express 
my  idea  in  better  terms  than -those  which  will  be  found  in  a  speech  made  by  me  in  Congress, 
nearly  twenty  years  ago,  upon  a  bill  to  refund  a  fine  assessed  by  Judge  Hall  upon  Gen.  Jackson 
at  New  Orleans  in  1815  :  "  Who  ever  pretended  that  the  Constitution  invested  Gen.  Jackson 
with  power  to  declare  martial  law !  The  friends  of  this  bill  place  his  justification  upon  the  law 
of  necessity — a  necessity  which  exists  above  and  beyond  the  Constitution.  That  necessity,  I  grant 
you,  must  be  clearly  and  conclusively  established.  Gen.  Jackeon  staked  his  destiny  upon  the  issue — • 
if  necessary,  he  was  right  and  would  be  sustained  by  the  people— if  not,  his  reputation  was  gone 
forever!" 

This  usurpation  of  power  (the  declaration  of  martial  law)  was  denounced  with  great  vio 
lence  by  the  anti-Democratic  party,  but  the  necessity  was  so  manifest  that  the  great  body  of  the 
people  sustained  him.  But  the  power  assumed  by  the  President  in  declaring  martial  law  in  many 
of  the  loyal  States,  where  our  civil  tribunals  are  entirely  uninterrupted  in  the  administration  of 
the  laws',  is  such  a  power  as  not  only  no  President  of  the  United  States  ever  before  attempted, 
but  no  monarch  of  Great  Britain  could  or  would  at  this  day  dare  assume.  The  revolution  of 
1688  put  an  end  to  the  abuses  which  had  existed  under  the  reign  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the  Bill  of 
Rights  made  express  provision  against  any  Briton  not  attached  to  the  military  forces  being  subjected 
to  any  kind  of  punishment  by  military  law.  Neither  the  Queen,  nor  Parliament  itself  (which  is  said 
to  be  omnipotent),  can  under  the  Constitution  of  the  country  at  this  day  do  what  the  President  of  the 
United  States  has  done,  over  and  over  again,  in  these  free  States — supersede  the  civil  power  and 
set  up  the  military  authority  and  martial  law  in  its  stead.  Why,  in  1689,  when  a  party  was  or 
ganized  to  make  war  upon  William  III,  and  he  ordered  the  summary  arrest  and  imprisonment  of 
the  Earl  of  Arran,  Sir  Robert  Hamilton,  and  some  other  gentlemen  of  the  Scottish  nation,  the 
historian  tells  us  that  "  he  immediately  informed  the  two  houses  of  Parliament  of  the  steps  he  had 
taken,  and  even  craved  their  advice  in  such  a  delicate  affair  which  had  compelled  him  to  trespass 
upon  the  laws  of  England."  Whilst  I  am  upon  this  branch  of  the  subject,  I  may  as  well  allude 
to  the  fact  that  so  jealous  were  the  framers  of  our  State  Constitutions  of  the  military  power,  that 
in  nearly  all  of  them  the  distinct  declaration  was  made,  "  that  the  military  shall  in  all  cases  and  at  all 
times  be  in  strict  accordance  to  the  civil  power."  Unless  this  principle  is  rigidly  adhered  to,  the  Federal 
Government  will  very  soon  swallow  "up  the  rights  of  the  States  and  become  a  despotism,  with  our 
lives  and  property  at  the  mercy  of  some  military  tyrant. 

One  of  the  causes  alleged  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence  for  separation  from  the 
mother  country  is,  that  the  King  of  Great  Britain  had  "  affected  to  render  the  military  independent  of 
and  superior  to  the  civil  power"  Are  not  cases  occurring  almost  every  day  in  the  loyal  States,  where 
Courts  are  organized  by  the  Federal  Government,  and  Judges  holding  commissions  from  the 
President,  are  sitting  without  any  interruption  whatever,  that  Provost  Marshals  seize  private 
citizens,  drag  them  from  their  dwellings,  and  subject  them  to  trial  before  military  tribunals  ? 
Even  if  such  a  procedure  were  not  a  direct  and  palpable  violation  of  the  Constitution,  why  should 
it  be  done  ?  Does  the  public  good  demand  it,  or  rather  is  it  not  done  to  punish  and  humiliate 
your  political  adversaries  ?  Mr.  Seward,  the  Secretary  of  State,  in  an  official  letter  to  Lord 
Lyons,  says:  "  My  Lord,  I  can  touch  a  bell  on  my  right  hand  and  order  the  arrest  of  a  citizen  in 
Ohio.  I  can  touch  the  bell  again  and  order  the  imprisonment  of  a  citizen  in  New  York,  and  no 
power  on  earth  but  that  of  the  President  can  release  them.  Can  the  Queen  of  England,  in  her 


14 

dominions,  do  as  much  ?"  I  confess,  follow  citizens,  when  I  rend  this  I  folt  ashamed  that  I  was 
an  American.  And  this  is  written  from  that  Department  of  the  Government  first  occupied  by  the 
illustrious  author  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  in  full  view  of  the  monument  which  is 
being  erected  to  the  memory  of  the  Father  of  our  Country !  Shades  of  Washington  and  Jefferson, 
do  you  see  how  we  are  tampering  and  trifling  with  the  liberties  you  supposed  you  had  secured  to 
your  descendants?  Do  you  see,  Americans,  your  countrymen  with  a  military  halter  around  their 
necks,  led  to  prison  because  they  have  dared  to  speak  their  sentiments  ?  Do  you  see  a  Secretary 
of  State,  the  mere  Clerk  of  the  President,  boasting  that  he  has  more  power  over  the  liberties  of 
American  citizens  than  the  Queen  of  England  has  over  her  subjects  ?  Oh,  your  labors  were  in  vain  ! 
You  threw  off  the  yoke  of  Colonial  bondage,  and  declared  us  u  free  and  independent  people,  but 
we  have  voluntarily  assumed  a  yoke  far  more  oppressive  ;  we  have  quietly  submitted  to  a  military 
despotism  far  mere  cruel,  far  more  exacting.  The  Constitution  which  you  framed  to  secure  our 
liberties  has  been  slaughtered,  and  we  have  no  rights  except  those  which  our  military  command 
ers  choose  to  award  us.  You  gave  us  a  free  press  and  liberty  of  speech,  but  a  lawless  mob  have 
suppressed  the  press,  and  we  dare  not  give  utterance  to  our  thoughts.  It  is  true  you  paid  in  the 
Constitution  which  you  formed  for  our  government,  that  no  person  xluill  be  deprived  of  life,  liberty  or 
property  without  due  process  of  law,  and  yet  our  lives,  liberties  and  property  are  at  the  mercy  of  mili 
tary  commanders!  The  "ringing  of  a  bell"  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  3,000  miles  from  here,  is 
the  only  "  due  process  of  law  "  necessary  to  send  a  citizen  of  California  to  prison.  The  Constitu 
tion,  "  the  supreme  law  of  the  land,"  says,  that  •'  In  all  criminal  prosecutions  the  accused  shall  en 
joy  the  right  to  a  speedy  and  public  trial,  by  an  impartial  jury  of  the  State  or  district  wherein 
the  crime  shall  have  been  committed,  which  district  shall  have  been  previously  ascertained  bylaw, 
and  to  be  informed  of  the  nature  and  cause  of  the  accusation  ;  to  be  confronted  with  the  winesses 
against  him;  to  have  compulsory  process  for  obtaining  witnesses  in  his  favor,  and  to  have  the 
assistance  of  counsel  for  his  defence."  But  what  care  our  rulers  for  the  Constitution  ?  It  is  true 
the  President  has  solemnly  sworn  "  to  preserve,  protect  and  defend  it,"  but  "  military  necessity"  com 
pels  him  to  trample  it  under  foot !  Thank  God,  the  men  of  the  revolution,  who  freely  poured  out 
their  blood  in  a  seven  years  war  to  secure  our  liberties,  have  all  passed  away.  How  deeply 
humiliated  they  would  be  to  see  their  descendants  stripped  of  all  those  blessings  for  which  they 
gpent  so  many  watchful  days  and  sleepless  nights,  and  reduced  in  two  years  to  the  most  abject 
slavery.  "  Farewell,  a  long  farewell  to  all  our  greatness,"  unless  the  people  rally  at  once  around 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws  and  shake  off  the  degrading  chains  which  arc  being  fastened  on  their 
necks.  Men  of  America !  if  you  do  not  arouse  from  your  slumbers  and  assert  your  rights,  you  are 
unworthy  of  the  proud  name  your  ancestors  gave  you.  Whilst  the  brave  Pole  is  striking  for 
liberty  against  fearful  odds,  cheerfully  encountering  every  danger  and  hardship  for  one  hour  of 
freedom,  we  are  quietly  sitting  by  our  firesides  whilst  the  chains  of  despotism  are  being  rivetted 
upon  us!  Men  of  America!  if  you  do  not  awaken  to  the  impending* danger,  and  make  an  effort  to 
regain  your  liberties,  your  children,  when  wearing  the  clanking,  galling  chains  of  oppression,  will 
curse  your  memories. 

It  was  scarcely  necessary  that  Mr.  Seward  should  boastfully  ask  Lord  Lyons :  "  Can  the 
Queen  of  England  in  her  dominions  do  as  much  ?"  If  Lord  Lyons  answers  the  interrogatory  he 
will  undoubtedly  tell  him:  "  No,  sir — No,  sir.  Her  Majesty  dare  not  trifle  with  the  liberties  of  her 
subjects.  Such  acts  of  tyranny  as  you  speak  of  would  arouse  the  whole  kingdom,  and  the  Crown 
which  she  wears  would  be  stripped  from  her  head.  Britons,  who  have  fought  so  often  for  liberty, 
cannot  be  reduced  to  slavery." 

I  have  alluded  to  the  declaration  of  martial  law  in  many  of  the  loyal  States.  Well,  what  is 
martial  law?  The  Duke  of  Wellington,  in  the  British  Parliament,  defined  it  thus:  "Martial  law 
was  nothing  more  or  less  thun  the  will  of  the  General  who  commands  the  Army.  In  fact,  martial 
law  meant  no  law  at  all."  The  will  of  the  President,  who  is  the  Commander-in-Chief,  or  his  sub 
ordinates  for  the  time  being,  is  the  law  by  which  the  rights  of  American  citizens  are  to  be  deter 
mined.  What  difference  is  there,  then,  between  this  and  the  most  absolute  despotism  in  the  old 
world? 

The  Constitution  declares  "  that  Congress  shall  have  no  power  to  abridge  the  liberty  of 
speech  or  the  freedom  of  the  press."  As  Congress  alone  possesses  the  power  to  legislate,  it  caa 
hardly  be  claimed  that  the  President  can  do  it.  Perhaps  the  ingenuity  of  their  learned  men,  who 
found  that  as  the  States  alone  were  prohibited  from  issuing  paper  money,  or  making  anything  but 
gold  and  silver  a  legal  tender,  therefore,  Congress  had  the  power  to  manufacture  such  a  currency 
and  make  it  a  legal  tender.  The  argument  would  amount  to  about  this :  Congress  cannot  abridge 
the  liberty  of  speech  or  the  freedom  of  the  press,  but  as  the  Executive  is  not  prohibited  from  doing 
it.  he  can.  The  same  provision  to  which  I  have  referred  is  found  in  all  our  State  Constitutions. 
Still,  notwithstanding  all  safe  guards  thrown  by  Constitutions,  Federal  and  State,  around  these 
rights  "  ine&timabte  to  freemen  and  formidable  to  tyrants  only,"  newspapers  have  been  destroyed 
or  suppressed,  and  hundreds  of  our  fellow  citizens  taken  from  their  homes  by  a  military  force, 
without  authority  of  law,  and  incarcerated  in  loathsome  dungeons  for  months,  because  they  had 
dared  to  question  the  policy  of  the  party  now  in  power.  Others,  again,  have  been  sent  by  the  same 
power  to  the  republican  bastiles  ;  and  after  being  confined  in  these  dirty  holes  for  months,  turned 
out  without  being  allowed  to  know  the  charges  upon  which  they  had  been  deprived  of  their  liberty. 
These  acts  are  not  only  violative  of  the  Constitution,  but  they  are  in  direct  conflict  with  that 
BOcred  instrument  which  loyal  Republicans  hold  in  much  higher  repute— I  mean  the  "  Chicago 


15 

Platform."  That  document  says  :  "  As  our  republican  fathers  ordained  that  no  person  should  bo 
deprived  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of  law,  it  becomes  by  legislation,  where- 
ever  legislation  is  necessary,  to  maintain  this  provision  of  the  Constitution  against  all  attempts  to 
violate  it." 

HOTV  often  has  this  article  in  the  Republican  Constitution  been  violated  ?  History  will  per 
haps  answer  the  question.  For  example  let  us  take  the  case  of  Ingersoll,  of  Pennsylvania.  I 
allude  to  this  case  because  here  there  was  an  affidavit  filed,  and  we  can  see  the  precise  crime  with 
which  he  was  charged.  It  consisted  in  saying  that  "  the  despotism  of  the  old  world  can  furnish 
no  parallel  to  the  corruptions  of  Abraham  Lincoln."  And  still  we  live  under  a  Constitution  and 
call  ourselves  freemen  !  When  the  press  is  muzzled,  and  liberty  of  speech  denied  to  the  people, 
it  is  folly  to  talk  to  us  of  the  "  glorious  Union."  Whilst  you  are  preaching  homilies  upon  this 
theme,  you  are  robbing  us  of  our  liberties,  and,  like  the  Madagascar  bat,  sucking  the  life  blood 
from  our  veins  when  fanning  us  to  sleep  by  the  cooling  breeze  of  the  wide-spread  wings  of 
"  Union."  Give  us  liberty  first,  and  then  Union  is  the  greatest  of  blessings.  Without  it,  it  would 
be  a  curse.  Let  me  read  you  a  part  of  the  platform  of  the  stern,  unyielding  Democrats  of  old 
Connecticut,  which  array  in  better  language  than  I  can  command  the  acts  of  the  party  now  in 
possession  of  the  Government  I  would  like  to  see  the  Democracy  of  California  adopt  this  as 
their  platform  in  the  coming  election.  It  has  been  endorsed  by  38,000  of  our  brethren  in  the 
heart  of  New  England. 

That  the  President  of  the  United  States,  by  his  emancipation  proclamation,  has  struck  a  serious  blow  at  the 
rights  of  the  States;  erected  a  barrier  almost  impassable  between  the  North  and  the  South,  in  attacking  the  people  of 
fifteen  States  through  a  domestic  institution  which  is  blended  with  their  social  fabric,  and  over  which  the  individual 
States  possess  exclusive  control  and  power;  and  regardless  of  the  great  lessons  of  the  past,  the  National  Executive  in 
pandering  to  the  insane  fanaticism  of  the  abolition  faction  policy,  which,  if  successfully  inaugurated,  would  disgrace 
our  country  in  the  eyes  of  the  civilized  world,  and  carry  lust,  rapine  and  murder  into  every  household  of  the  slave- 
holding  States : 

That  the  act  of  the  Federal  Administration  in  suspending  the  habeas  corpus — the  arrest  of  citizens  not  subject  to 
military  law,  without  warrant  or  authority — imprisoning  them  without  charge  or  accusation — denying  the  right  of 
trial  by  jury,  or  witnesses  in  their  favor,  and  counsel  for  the  defence — withholding  from  them  all  knowledge  of  their 
accusers,  or  the  cause  of  their  arrest — answering  their  petitions  for  redress  by  repeated  injury  and  insult — prescrib 
ing,  in  many  cases,  as  a  condition  of  their  release,  test  oaths,  arbitrary  and  illegal: 

In  this  abridgement  of  the  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press — in  suppressing  newspapers  by  military  force, 
and  establishing  a  censorship  wholly  incompatible  with  the  freedom  of  thought  and  expression  of  opinion: 

In  the  establishment  of  a  system  of  espionage  by  a  secret  police,  to  invade  th«  sacred  privacy  of  unsuspecting 
citizens : 

In  declaring  martial  law  over  States  not  in  rebellion,  and  where  the  Courts  are  open  and  unobstructed  for  the 
punishment  of  crime: 

In  attempting  to  strike  out  of  existence  the  entire  value  of  property  in  slaves  throughout  the  country; 

In  the  attempted  enforcement  of  compensated  emancipation: 

In  the  proposed  taxation  of  the  laboring  white  man  to  purchase  the  freedom  of  the  negro,  and  place  his  labor  in 
competition  with  the  white  man  thus  taxed: 

In  the  dismemberment  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  erecting  within  her  boundaries  a  new  State  without  the  consent 
of  the  Legislature: 

Are  each  and  all  arbitrary  and  unconstitutional;  subverting  the  Constitutions,  State  and  Federal;  invadiag  the 
reserved  rights  of  the  people  and  sovereignty  of  the  States;  and  if  sanctioned,  destructive  of  the  Union;  establishing 
upon  the  common  ruins  of  the  liberties  of  the  people  a^d  the  sovereignty  of  the  States  a  consolidated  military 
despotism. 

Will  any  one  have  the  effrontery  to  say  that  these  outrages  upon  the  Constitution  and 
upon  the  inalienable  rights  of  the  people  were  necessary  in  order  to  carry  on  a  successful  war 
against  the  South?  Was  it  necessary  to  seize  respectable  citizens  by  an  armed  force  and  trans 
port  them  to  distant  States  or  countries  for  imprisonment?  Take  the  case  of  Mr.  Vallandigham, 
of  Ohio,  who  has  just  closed  a  term  of  five  years  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  I  know 
not  what  the  charges  against  him  were,  nor  do  I  care.  His  "  castle  "  was  invaded,  he  was  seized 
by  a  military  force,  carried  to  another  county  and  subjected  to  trial  before  a  military  court  in 
contravention  of  the  laws  of  the  land.  That  tribunal,  held  in  secret,  sentenced  him  to  transport 
ation.  If  he  had  butchered  his  wife,  and  slaughtered  all  his  innocent  children  in  cold  blood,  he 
would  have  been  arrested  by  a  police  officer,  carried  before  a  civil  tribunal  and  regularly  com 
mitted  to  prison.  In  due  time  he  would  have  been  indicted  by  the  Grand  Jury,  arraigned  and 
put  upon  his  trial  before  an  unprejudiced  jury  of  his  countrymen.  If  unable  to  employ  counsel 
to  defend  him,  the  Court  would  provide  one,  and  see  that  witnesses,  if  any  he  desired,  were  pro 
perly  summoned.  These  rights  are  secured  to  the  murderer,  but  not  to  the  Democrat  who  dares  to 
question  the  policy  of  the  party  in  power,  or  speak  irreverently  of  the  Chief  Magistrate !  These 
rights  are  secured  to  the  traitor,  who  takes  up  arms  against  the  Government  to  which  he  owes  al 
legiance,  but  not  to  the  man  who  openly  speaks  of  the  corruptious  of  the  present  Administra 
tion  !  And  yet  this  is  not  a  despotism,  but  a  republican  government,  where  liberty  of  speech  is 
secured  by  the  fundamental  law.  Blessed  land  of  liberty^  Thou  art  still  the  land  of  the  free 
and  the  home  of  the  oppressed— the  asylum  of  the  down-trodden  victims  of  the  despotism  of  the 
Old  World !  Why,  an  old  English  writer,  speaking  of  the  Magna  Charta,  says  :  "  Every  man's 
house  is  his  castle,  not  that  it  is  surrounded  with  walls  and  battlements.  It  may  be  a  straw-built 
cottage.  Every  wind  of  heaven  may  whistle  through  it,  all  the  elements  of  heaven  may  enter  it, 
but  the  King  cannot,  the  King  dare  not  enter  it."  Most  gallantly  have  the  Democrats  of  that  noble 
State  come  to  the  rescue  of  the  champion  of  American  liberty.  A  State  Convention  of  370  dele 
gates  from  the  respective  counties  nominated  him  for  the  Chief  Magistracy  of  the  State,  although 


16 

exiled  by  order  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  He  will  be  elected,  beyond  all  doubt,  un 
less  the  Army  is  used,  as  it  was  in  Connecticut,  to  silence  the  voice  of  the  people.  The  ball  ia 
now  in  motion,  and  God  grant  that  it  may  roll  on  until  the  last  vestige  of  Black  Republicanism 
is  destroyed  in  America. 

Fellow-citizens :  When  did  it  become  treason  to  arraign  the  acts  of  the  President  ?  So 
careful  were  our  fathers  to  protect  the  people  in  their  rights,  that  instead  of  giving  Congress  the 
power  to  define  this  crime,  they  proceeded  to  declare,  in  precise  terms,  what  should  constitute 
treason.  But  I  ask  again,  when  did  it  become  treason  to  doubt  the  necessity  of  a  war,  or  con 
demn  the  manner  in  which  it  is  prosecuted?  Certainly  not  in  1812,  when  the  papers  of  New  Eng 
land  during  the  war  with  Great  Britain  denounced  it  •'  most  infamous."  It  was  not  treason  when 
the  "Salem  Gazette"  said  :  "  At  the  door  of  James  Madison  and  his  accomplices  lies  the  blood  of 
our  butchered  countrymen !"  It  was  not,  when  one  of  their  clergymen  (Mr.  Gardner)  said  in  the 
pulpit  at  Boston :  "Mr.  Madison  has  declared  war,  let  him  carry  it  on."  It  was  not  treason 
when  the  "  Boston  Sentinel "  said  :  "  So  unjust  is  this  offense  into  which  our  rulers  have  plunged 
us,  in  the  sober  consideration  of  millions,  that  they  can  not  conscientiously  approach  the  God  of 
armies  and  invoke  his  blessing  upon  it."  It  was  not,  when  the  "  U.  S.  Gazette,"  at  Philadelphia, 
said  :  "  The  rear  is  purely  Democratic  ;  it  was  undertaken  for  Democratic  and  not  national  purposes.  Let  the 
Democrats,  therefore,  terminate  it  as  best  they  can.  We  have  no  partnership  in  the  matter.  *  *  The  war 
has  hitherto  been  the  war  of  a  party  ;  let  it  so  continue  and  so  be  terminated !  The  disgrace  will 
then  continue  to  be  the  disgrace  of  the  party,  and  not  of  the  country — a  consummation  devoutly 
to  be  wished!"  It  was  not,  when  the  " Boston  Advocate "  said  :  "  Our  plan  is  to  withhold  our 
money  and  make  a  separate  peace  with  England."  It  was  not,  when  the  same  paper  said  :  "  Will 
the  people  lend  money  to  our  national  rulers  ?  It  is  grateful  to  find  that  the  universal  sentiment 
is  that  any  man  who  lends  money  to  the  Government  at  the  present  time  will  forfeit  all  claim  to 
common  honesty  and  common  courtesy  among  all  true  friends  to  the  country."  It  is  now  a  high 
crime  to  discourage  enlistments,  and  men  guilty  of  it  are  sent  to  prison.  If  a  man  advises  his  son 
or  brother  not  to  engage  in  this  war  unc^er  the  orders  of  the  Government,  he  is  waited  upon  by  a 
provost  guard  and  conducted  to  prison?  Not  so  in  1812,  when  Dr.  Osgood  said  in  one  of  his  ser 
mons  :  "  Every  man  who  volunteers  his  services  or  loans  his  money  for  its  support,  or  by  his 
conversation,  writings,  or  by  any  other  mode  of  influence  encourages  its  prosecution,  that  man  is 
an  accomplice  in  the  wickedness,  and  loads  his  conscience  with  the  blackest  crimes,  brings  the  guilt  upon 
his  soul,  and  in  the  sigM  of  God  and  the  law  is  a  MURDERER."  It  was  not  when  Timothy  Pickering 
(Secretary  of  State  under  Washington  and  the  elder  Adams)  in  the  U.  S.  Senate,  said,  <;as  he  was 
confident  of  the  inexpediency  and  injustice  of  the  war,  he  could  not  vote  for  any  bills  which  in 
any  manner  aided  it.  My  aim  is  to  put  an  end  to  this  unjust  and  ruinous  war,  and  therefore  I 
oppose  all  supplies  for  carrying  it  on." 

These  things  were  said  publicly  when  our  country  was  engaged  in  a  fearful  contest  with  one 
of  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the  earth— a  war  which  has  been  properly  designated  "'!:  -  s«cond 
war  of  independence."  But  we  hear  of  no  military  arrests,  no  Provost  Marshals,  no  martial  law,  or  sus- 
pention  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  or  imprisonment  in  bastiles,  or  suppression  of  newspapers  !  So  far  from 
it,  we  find  Mr.  Madison,  then  President,  inliis  message  to  Congress  Busing  the  following  language  : 
*'  Our  Constitution  secures  to  us  the  freedom  of  speech,  and  at  this  momentous  period  it  is  our 
right  and  our  duty  to  inquire  into  the  grounds  and  origin  of  the  present  war,  to  reflect  on  the  state 
of  public  affairs,  and  to  express  our  sentiments  concerning  them  with  decency  and  frankness, 
and  to  endeavor,  as  far  as  our  limited  influence  extends,  to  promote  by  temperate  and  constitu 
tional  means  an  honorable  reconciliation."  (See  Annals  of  Congress — 13th  Congress,  vol.  1,  page 
333.)  Instead  of  denying,  Mr.  Madison  says  that  it  is  not  only  the  "  RIGHT  "  but  the  "  DUTY  "  of 
the  people  to  express  their  sentiments  in  regard  to  the  war. 

It  could  not  have  been  treason  when  the  Legislature  of  Massachussetts  sent  a  memorial  to 
Congress  denouncing  the  war  as  "  improper,  impolitic  and  UNJUST.'''  (See  same  vol.,  page  37.)  Nor 
could  it  have  been  treason  when  the  Governors  of  Massachussetts  and  Connecticut  refused  to  call 
out  the  militia  of  the  respective  States  upon  the  requisition  of  the  President,  in  anticipation  of  the 
war  with  England  in  1812.  Nor  was  it  when  they  subsequently  claimed  the  power  to  control  the 
militia  when  called  out,  and  instructed  them  "  not  to  invade  the  enemy's  territory."  Nor  was  it 
treason  when  King,  of  Massachussetts,  said,  in  the  House  of  Congress : 

Ask  the  twice  ten  thousand  fatherles*  children,  orphaned  by  the  war,  if  glory  will  give  them  bread^when  hun 
gry,  or  clothes  when  naked,  or  restore  to  them  the  endearing  relation  of  father!  No.  Sir!  No,  Sir!  They  are  thrown 
destitute  and  helpless  upon  the  mercy  of  a  wide  world,  which  must  forever  hide  them,  and  will  be  taught  to  lisp  in 
curses  the  name  of  Madron  and  Madison's  warl 

It  would  be  treason  for  me  to  say  in  the  language  of  this  same  Congressman : 

Follow  me  to  your  various  encampments  ;  visit  with  me  your  numerous  battle  fields,  crimsoned  with  blood,  and 
cry  Rlory— glory  over  the  mouldering  remains  of  30,000  slaughtered,  murdered  American  citizens,  victims  to  your 
ambition  and  folly,  and  see  if  it  will  reanimate  and  restore  them  to  their  country  and  their  friends.  No,  Sir  !  No; 
their  accusing  spirits  havt  ascended  to  their  God,  and  their  blood  will  be  required  at  your  hands. 

Again,  it  could  not  have  been  treason  in  January,  1848,  when  the  anti-Democratic  party  in 
Congress  passed  a  resolution  declaring  that  "  the  Mexican  war  was  unnecessarily  and  unconstitutionally 
beyun  by  President  Polk."  It  was  not  treason  when  Governor  Corwin,  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 


17 

States,  would  have  the  Mexicans  welcome  our  gallant  volunteers,  "  with  bloody  hands  to  hospitable 
graves."-  It  could  not  have  been  treason  when  President  Lincoln,  then  a  member  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  was  supporting  and  defending  this  resolution.  It  could  not  have  been  treason 
when  he  eaid  upon  the  floor  of  Congress,  when  speaking  of  President  Polk,  "  he  feels  the  blood  of 
this  war,  like  the  blood  of  Abel,  is  crying  to  Heaven  against  him."  Nor  was  it  treason  when  this 
gentleman,  in  the  same  speech,  gave  utterance  to  the  following  language  : 

Now,  at  the  end  of  about  twenty  months,  during  which  time  our  arms  have  given  us  the  most  splendid  success; 
every  part — land  and  water,  officers  and  privates,  regulars  and  volunteers — doing  all  that  men  could  do,  and  hundreds 
of  things  which  it  ever  before  had  been  thought  ra*n  could  not  do  ;  after  all  this,  this  same  President  gives  us  a  long 
message,  .showing  us  that  as  to  the  end  he  has  himself  even  no  imaginary  conception.  As  I  before  said,  he  knows  not 
•where  he  is.  He  i^a  bewildered,  confounded  and  mi-erably  perplexed  man.  God  grant  that  he  may  be  able  to  show 
that  there  is  not  something  about  his  conscience  more  painful  than  all  his  mental  perplexity. 

And  it  would  not  do  for  me  to  say  :  "  How  like  the  half  insane,  mumbling  of  a  fever  dream 
is  the  whole  war  part  of  his  last  message."  Or  that :  "  His  mind,  tasked  begond  its  power,  is  running 
hither  and  thither,  like  some  tortured  creature  on  a  burning  surface,  -finding  no  position  on  which  it  can  settle 
down  and  be  at  ease."  All  these  things  were  said  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in  regard  to  President  Polk  and 
the  Mexican  war.  See  Appendix  to  Congressional  Globe,  vol.  19,  1st  session  30th  Congress,  pages 
94  and  95. 

Now,  fellow  citizens,  how  many  of  our  countrymen  have  been  thrown  into  prison  during 
this  war  for  using  language  in  regard  to  Mr.  Lincoln  much  less  severe  than  this.  But  times  have 
changed,  sadly  changed  since  then,  although  we  are  living  under  the  same  Constitution,  guaran 
teeing  free  speech  and  a  free  press !  It  would  be  the  foulest  treason  for  a  Democratic  citizen  to. 
say  that  President  Lincoln  feels  "  that  the  blood  of  this  war,  like  the  blood  of  Abel,  is  crying  to  Heaven 
against  him."  Nor  would  it  do  to  say  that  "  lie  is  a  bewildered,  confounded  and  miserably  perplexed  man  f 
that  "there  is  something  about  his  conscience  more  painful  than  all  his  mental  perplexities;"  that  "  after 
twenty  months  he  has  even  no  imaginary  conception  as  to  the  end.  Nor  would  it  do  to  say  that 
"  He  knows  not  where  he  is ;"  or  that  "  His  mind,  tasked  beyond  its  power,  is  running  hither  and 
thither,  like  some  tortured  creature  on  a  burninig  surf  ace,  finding  no  position  on  which  it  can  settle  down  and  be 
at  ease."  I  do  not  say  these  things,  because  the  cold  walls  of  the  California  bastile  are  now  frown 
ing  upon  me. 

Under  the  sedition  act  of  the  elder  Adams,  the  unfortunate  man  who  spoke  disrespectfully 
of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  or  other  high  functionary,  was  allowed  a  trial  before  a  jury,  and  per 
mitted  to  offer  evidence  to  prove  the  truth  of  his  declarations.  But  under  the  orders  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln  and  his  Secretaries,  men  have  been  imprisoned  for  months,  and  no  charges  made 
against  them.  And  all  these  things  have  been  done  to  stifle  discussion,  and  perpetuate  Republi 
can  rule.  But  it  will  not  answer.  The  voice  of  the  people  cannot,  I  trust,  be  silenced.  The 
Democrats,  under  Jefferson,  repealed  the  sedition  act,  and  drove  the  Federals  from  power.  The 
descendants  of  the  same  men  will  take  care,  if  allowed  the  right  of  suffrage,  to  vindicate  their 
rights,  and  hurl  from  their  high  places  these  men  who  have  sought  to  deprive  them  of  the  liberty 
of  speech,  and  trampled  upon  the  Constitution  of  their  fathers. 

' '  For  time  at  last  sets  all  things  even — 

And  if  we  do  but  watch  that  hour,    £^!*f£:CfOi't-  Lad  B»  J 
9  There  never  yet  was  human  power 

Which  could  evade,  if  unforgiven,  /•  ,^  .^.i*-.  ^  10  I'V^»--K3 

The  patient  search  and  vigil  long,  AJ3X|l  '  *  «3 

Of  him  -who  treasures  up  a  wrong." 

We  were  drifting  rapidly  into  a  military  despotism,  when  a  voice  came  through  the  ballot- 
box,  admonishing  the  party  in  power  that  the  Constitution  must  be  maintained  and  the  rights  of 
the  people  respected.  How  far  this  admonition  will  secure  the  people  in  the  enjoyment  of  their 
Constitutional  rights— liberty  of  speech  and  freedom  from  military  arrests— remains  to  be  seen. 
I  fear  it  will  be  disregarded,  as  I  see  some  indications  that  you  intend  to  use  your  army  of  a  mil 
lion  of  men  in  such  a  way  as  to  perpetuate  your  power  by  taking  possession  of  the  ballot-box.  I 
confess  that  I  have  fearful  forebodings  as  to  the  future;  but  I  will,  however,  trust  in  the  influence 
of  truth,  whose  empire  is  felt  in  every  human  heart  when  once  it  has  touched  it.  I  will  put  my 
faith  higher  yet — "  in  Providence ;  for  it  cannot  be  that  God  will  permit  such  a  scheme  of  Govern 
ment  as  this,  freighted  as  it  is  with  the  highest  hopes  of  humanity,  to  be  wrecked  in  the  wild 
orgies  of  madmen  and  fanatics." 

The  fbtal  extinction  of  slavery  and  the  subjugation  of  the  South  is  now  the  avowed  policy 
of  the  Administration.  They  have  abandoned  all  idea  of  reconstructing  the  Union  as  it  was. 
The  whole  military  and  naval  power  is  to  be  used  to  emancipate  the  slaves  and  subjugate  their 
masters.  Subjugate?  Let  me  tell  you,  fellow  citizens,  that  eight  millions  of  Americans,  reared 
under  republican  institutions,  who  believe  they  have  been  oppressed,  and  are  determined  to  be 
free,  never  can  be  subjugated.  Extermination  is  possible,  but  subjugation  never  can  be  accom 
plished.  Look  at  these  men  as  they  are.  They  believe  (no  matter  whether  right  or  wrong,) 
that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  elected  for  the  purpose  of  emancipating  their  slaves,  and  reducing  them  to 
penury  and  want.  They  believe  that  their  happiness  and  prosperity  demands^  separation  from 
the  North.  That  fraternal  feeling  which  bound  the  States  together,  and  constituted  the  strength 
of  the  Union,  was  long  since  destroyed.  They  threw  off  (unwisely,  I  think,)  what  they  regarded 
as  the  yoke  of  the  oppressor,  and  boldly  struck  for  independence.  They  preferred  revolution, 


13 

with  all  its  horrors,  to  a  continued  alliance  with  those  they  despi?ed.  You  see  the  whole  white 
population  rushing  to  arms.  The  females  stripping  themselves  of  their  jewelry  and  selling  their 
costly  furniture  to  supply  the  troops  with  food.  See  them,  when  unable  to  protect,  destroying 
their  crops  worth  millions  of  dollars,  and,  bare  headed  and  bare  footed,  meeting  our  well  clacf  and 
well  fed  legions  upon  the  bloody  field  of  battle.  Both  armies  have  performed  deeds  of  valor,  and 
exhibited  heroic  courage  almost  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  man.  Why,  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Mas 
sachusetts— who,  from  his  position  as  Chairman  of  the  Military  Committee  in  the  Senate,  is,  upon 
war  questions,  the  leader  of  that  body— as  early  as  the  14th  December,  1801,  from  his  seat,  said  : 
"  I  do  not  know  where  to  find,  in  the  history  of  any  country  or  of  any  age,  a  people  who  have 
manifested  more  vigor  and  more  power,  according  to  their  numbers,  than  have  the  men  engaged 
iu  this  rebellion." 

These  men  of  the  South  believe  that  we  have  invaded  their  country  to  strip  them  of  their 
property,  reduce  their  wives  and  children  to  beggary,  and  fasten  the  chains  of  slavery  upon  them. 
Can  Americans,  entertaining  such  sentiments,  be  subjugated?  Can  a  people  who  th'ink  and  feel 
that  they  are  fighting  for  all  that  makes  life  desirable  be  conquered ?  No,  Sir !  Never !  Never! 
Suppose  all  the  powers  of  Europe  should  combine  and  invade  America,  with  the  declaration  that 
they  came  to  confiscate  our  property,  reduce  our  wives  and  children  to  penury  and  want,  and 
subjugate  us.  Could  they  accomplish  it?  Every  American  heart  responds— -Never !  Never! 
They  might  annihilate  our  navy,  ruin  our  commerce,  destroy  our  cities,  break  up  our  divisions, 
scatter  our  armies,  spread  desolation  throughout  the  land  ;  but  we  would  take  to  our  mountain 
fastnesses  and  their  continue  the  war  until  the  last  man  was  slaughtered.  We  would  "  razee  every 
house,  burn  every  blade  of  grass,  and  the  last  entrenchment  of  liberty  would  be  our  graves." 

I  have  already  said  that  the  idea  of  reconstructing  the  Union  as  it  was  has  been  entirely 
abandoned  by  the  party  in  power.  Can  the  States  be  reunited  in  any  form  by  the  prosecution  of 
the  war  ?  I  believe  that  a  reconstruction  of  the  Union  could  readily  have  been  effected  previous 
to  the  passage  of  the  confiscation  acts,  and  the  emancipation  proclamation  of  the  President.  Al 
though  that  eminent  orator  and  statesman  to  whom  I  have  already  referred,  (Judge  Douglas,)  in 
the  speech  from  which  I  have  quoted,  said : 

If  war  comes  it  must  have  an  end.  and  that  termination,  I  apprehend,  will  be  final  separation.  Whether  the 
war  lasts  one  year,  seven  years,  or  thirty  years,  the  result  must  be  the  same— a  cessation  of  hostilities  when  the  par 
ties  become  exhausted,  and  a  treaty  of  peace  recognizing  the  separate  independence  of  each  section.  The  his tory  of 
the  world  does  not  furnish  au  instance,  where  war  has  raged  for  a  series  of  years  between  two  classes  of  States, 
divided  by  a  geographical  line,  under  the  same  National  Government,  which  has  ended  in  reconciliation  and  reunion. 
Extermination,  subjugation  or  separation  must  be  the  result  of  war  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States.  Surely 
you  do  not  expect  to  exterminate  or  subjugate  ten  millions  of  people — the  entire  population  of  one  section — as  a 
means  of  preserving  amicable  relations  between  the.  two  sections .' 

See  Congressional  Globe,  part  2,  2d  session  36th  Congress,  page  42,  Appendix. 

The  whole  theory  of  our  Government  is  based  upon  the  idea  of  the  consent  of  the  governed, 
and  that  the  States  are  held  together  by  the  ties  of  interest  and  affection,  and  not  physical  force. 
Suppose  we  succeed  in  breaking  down  the  State  Governments  and  establish  military  rule  in  its 
stead,  it  will,  in  my  judgment,  require  as  strong  a  force  to  maintain  as  it  did  to  establish  it.  In 
stead  of  seeking  to  win  them  back  into  the  Union  by  promises  of  equal  rights,  equal  protection, 
you  are  now  waging  a  war  against  the  institutions  which  constitute  the  foundations  of  their,  social 
and  political  organization.  Are  we  not  sending  our  vast  armies  into  the  field  to  drive  them  from 
their  homes  and  the  consecrated  graves  of  their  ancestors.  Why  the  "Morning  Call,"  of  San 
Francisco,  under  date  17th  ult,  contains  a  letter  from  a  soldier  in  the  Southwest,  which  says  : 
"  General  Rosecrans  sent  us  word  to  kill,  burn  and  destroy,  and  we  are  filling  the  order  to  the 
letter."  And  is  this  the  way  in  which  you  propose  to  restore  the  Union  !  Why,  fellow  citizens, 
have  we  gone  back  to  the  barbarian  ages,  when  war  was  waged  for  plunder,  instead  of  National 
conquest  or  National  honor  ?  Vattel,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  distinguished  writers  upon  the 
law  of  nations,  says :  .  „ 

A  civil  war  breaks  the  bonds  of  society  and  government,  or,  at  least,  it  suspends  their  force  and  effect;  produces 
in  the  nation  two  independent  parties,  considering  each  other  as  enemies,  and  acknowledging  no  common  judge; 
therefore,  of  necessity,  these  two  parties  must,  at  least  for  a  time,  be  considered  as  forming  two  separate  bodies,  two 
distinct  people.  *  *  Things  being  thus  situated,  it  is  very  evident  that  the  common  laws  of  war,  those  maxims  of 
humanity,  moderation  and  probity,  which  we  have  before  enumerated  and  recommended,  are  in  civil  wars  to  be  ob 
served  on  both  sides.  Whenever  a  numerous  party  thinks  it  has  a  right  to  resist  the  Sovereign,  and  finds  itself  able 
to  declare  that  opinion,  sword  in  hand,  the  war  is  to  be  carried  on  between  them  in  the  same  manner  as  between  two 
different  nations ;  and  they  are  to  leave  open  the  same  means  of  preventing  enormous  xioknccs  and  restoring  peace. 

"  Kill,  burn  and  destroy !"  Have  we  become  a  nation  of  madmen  ?  Have  we  become  so 
brutalized  by  war,  that  these  things  receive  our  sanction  ?  Are  they  not  disgraceful  to  the  age, 
disgraceful  to  humanity  ?  It  is  a  savage  order,  no  matter  whence  it  came.'and  none  but  brutes 
would  execute  it.  This  order  is  very  much  after  the  style  of  Parson  Brownlow,  who  is  now  ad 
dressing  the  people  of  the  Northern  and  Western  States  upon  this  war.  This  reverend  Minister 
of  the  Gospel  of  Peace  recently  delivered  a  street  speech  at  Chicago,  111.,  in  which  he  said  :  "  He 
had  seen  hundreds  of  horses  and  mules  dead  at  Murfreesboro,  and  his  bowels  moved  with  sympa 
thy,  sorrow  and  regret — he  was  filled  ivith  sadness ;  but  when  he  looked  upon  the  graves  of  thousands  of 
rebels  at  the  same  place,  buried  just  as  they  used  to  bury  cabbages  in  East  Tennessee,  HE  LOOKED 
o.\  WITH  COMPLACENCY  AND  DELIGHT.  *  *  He  wished  to  be  in  East  Tennesse  when  the  Federal 


19 

advance  reaches  there,  for  there  are  men  in  that  region  whom  he  is  determined  shall  pull  hemp 
without  foothold.  He  was  for  hanging  the  scoundrels  upon  every  limb,  and  shoot  them  down  like  DOGS 
wherever  found."  And  civil  war  has  so  changed  the  character  of  our  people,  that  these  brutal  sen 
timents  were  applauded !  May  I  not  say  again  :  Have  we  become  a  nation  of  madmen  ?  Is  this 
the  nineteenth  century?  Can  we  expect  the  blessings  of  Heaven  to  rest  upon  a  people  so  desti 
tute  of  all  the  principles  which  characterize  a  Christian  and  civilized  nation  ? 

Sixteen  years  ago,  when  the  national  honor  compelled  us  to  send  our  armies  to  invade 
Mexico  and  plant  our  banner  in  the  very  heart  of  that  Republic,  we  gave  them  no  instruction  to 
"  kill,  burn  and  destroy."  On  the  contrary,  private  citizens  were  unmolested,  and  private  pro 
perty  everywhere  respected.  If  any  was  taken  for  the  use  of  the  Army,  a  just  and  full  compen 
sation  was  made.  Besides,  we  sent  a  commissioner  along  with  the  Army  to  negotiate  for  peace, 
thus  carrying  the  sword  in  one  hand  and  the  olive  branch  in  the  other. 

Now  let  me  call  your  attention  to  another  order.  Similar  orders  have  been  issued  in  other 
military  districts,  but  I  take  the  one  published  in  the  "  Alta,"  from  Columbus,  Ky.  Amongst 
other  things  it  says :  "  It  is  hereafter  made  the  important  duty  of  all  post  commanders  and  Pro 
vost  Marshals  in  this  district  to  arrest  all  persons  who  shall  in  any  manner  express  their  sympa 
thy  for  rebels  in  arms  against  the  Government  of  the  United  States."  Mark  the  words  :  "All  per 
sons  who  shall  in  any  manner  express  sympathy"  etc. 

I  am  more  fortunate,  in  one  respect,  than  many  of  my  countrymen.  I  have  no  kindred,  to 
my  knowledge,  in  either  army  or  navy.  But  suppose  I  had.  Suppose  I  had  a  kind,  affectionate, 
manly  brother  in  the  Southern  army,  and  suppose  I  received  the  intelligence,  when  in  a  public 
company,  that  he  had  been  killed  in  one  of  the  great  battles  which  are  daily  occurring.  If  I  shed 
tears,  as  in  the  weakness  of  poor  human  nature  I  probably  would,  this  would  be  "  an  expression 
of  sympathy  for  rebels,"  and  under  the  order  I  would  be  sent  to  prison!  Great  God,  is  there  any 
other  country  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  where  the  poor  privilege  of  weeping  over  the  death  of 
a  brother  or  friend  is  denied?  Or  if  I  should  hear  that  a  favorite  son,  upon  whom  all  the  affec 
tions  of  my  heart  had  concentrated,  born  in  the  South  and  educate'!  to  believe  that  his  first  al 
legiance  was  due  to  his  State,  had  been  stricken  down  in  battle  and  was  laying  in  one  of  their 
miserable  hospitals  suffering  for  the  necessaries  of  life,  and  I  should  send  him  a  few  dollars  to 
relieve  his  wants,  or  it  may  be  to  smooth  his  passage  to  the  grave — you  would  not  only  send  me 
to  prison,  but  under  the  laws  of  this  State  deny  me  the  right  to  prosecute  a  suit  in  the  Courts  ! 
If  a  Republican  was  to  seize  upon  a  portion  of  the  little  farm  where  I  live,  and  it  became  neces 
sary  to  bring  a  suit  to  eject  him,  the  lawyer  would  advise  him  to  put  in  the  plea  that  I  had  sent 
money  to  a  rebel,  and  I  would  be  hooted  out  of  Court!  And  yet  this  is  a  free  country!  Have 
not  the  shackles  been  stricken  from  the  Negro  ?  Is  he  not  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  largest 
liberty?  Is  he  not  as  free  as  the  grizzly  bear  that  roams  over  your  majestic  mountains?  But 
enough  of  this. 

Judge  Douglas,  to  whom  I  have  so  frequently  referred. -never  spoke  the  truth  more  forcibly 
than  when  standing  in  the  Senate  on  the  15th  March,  1861,  he  gave  utterance  to  this  language  : 
"  History  does  not  record  an  example  where  any  human  government  has  been  strong  enough  to 
crush  ten  million  people  into  subjection  when  they  believed  their  rights  and  liberties  imperilled. 
without  first  converting  the  Government  itself  into  a  despotism  and  destroying  the  last  vestige  of  freedom."  The 
Administration  conceding  the  truth  of  this  declaration,  is  now  attempting  to  subjugate  the  South, 
by  u  first  converting  our  Government  into  a  despotism  and  DESTROYING  THE  LAST  VESTIGE  or  ri-JEEDOMF 

To  accomplish  this  they  expect  to  use  an  army  of  a  million  of  men,  with  fixed  bayonets,  to 
control  the  elections  in  the  respective  States,  and  thus  perpetuate  Republican  rule.  Let  me  read 
you  a  special  order  from  the  War  Department,  the  genuiness  of  which  is  vouched  for  by  Governor 
Seymour,  of  New  York,  in  his  veto  message  : 

War  Department,  Adjutant  General's  Office,  "I 
Washington,  March'  13,  1833.  «J 

14.  By  direction  of  the  President,  the  following  officers  are  hereby  dismissed  from  the  service  of  the  United 
States.  *  *  *  *  *  *  Lieutenant  A.  J.  Edgerly,  Fourth  New  Hampshire  Volunteers,  for  circulating  Copp  erhead 
tickets,  and  doing  all  in  his  power  to  promote  the  success  of  the  rebel  cause  in  his  State. 

By  order  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 
To  the  Governor  of  New  Hampshire.  L.  THOMAS,  Adjutant  General. 

_  The  tickets  which  this  young  man  distributed  were  Democratic  tickets.  He  is  charged  in 
this  dignified  order  with  doing  all  in  his  power  "  to  promote  the  success  of  the  rebel  cause,"  be 
cause,  as  a  free  man,  he  went  to  the  polls  and  voted  for  a  man  for  Governor  who  received  a  much 
larger  number  of  votes  than  the  Republican  Administration  candidate !  Governor  Seymour  very 
justly  remarks,  that  "  such  acts  are  more  disastrous  to  the  cause  of  our  Union  than  the  loss  of  battles." 

Men  of  California,  I  would  to  God  that  I  could  impress  upon  your  minds  the  necessity  of 
prompt  and  vigorous  action.  Whilst  prating  about  "  the  Union,  the  enforcement  of  the  laws,  the 
necessity  of  standing  by  the  Government,  the  obligation  to  protect  National  honor,"  they  are 
forging  the  fetters  which  are  to  bind  us  and  our  children  to  the  car  of  despotism,  and  thus  destroy 
the  last  vest-age  of  American  freedom. 


If  you  want  additional  evidence  of  the  design  of  the  Republicans  take  the  statement  of 
>r  Baker,  of  Oregon,  on  the  10th  July,  1861,  in  the  United  States  Senate.  He  said:  "I 
want  sudden,  bold,  forward,  determined  war;  and  I  do  not  think  anybody  can  conduct  war  of  that 
kind  as  well  as  a  dictator.'"  Congressional  Globe,  1st  session  37th  Congress,  page  44.  The  same 


20 

zens,  I  again  beg,  I  again  implore  you  to  defeat  this  movement  of  the  Republicans  to  fasten  a 
DICTATOR  upon  us.  Go  to  the  polls  at  the  next  election,  resolved  to  exercise  the  rights  of  free 
men,  uncontrolled  by  military  power,  or  perish  in  the  attempt. 

Congress,  at  the  last  session,  authorized  the  President  to  enlist  and  arm  300,000  negroes, 
and  send  them,  with  all  their  hostile  feelings  and  prejudices,  against  those  whom  they  regard  as 
the  oppressors  of  their  race,  to  spread  ruin  and  desolation  throughout  the  South.  I  shudder  at 
the  horrible  outrages  which  these  infuriated  wretches  will  inflict  upon  the  women  and  children 
who  fall  in  their  way. 

"  A  thousand  years  from  now- 
Pale  ghosts  will  sit  upon  the  Stygian  shore, 
And  read  their  acts  by  the  red  light  of  hell." 

Upon  the  score  of  humanity  it  would  have  been  far  better  to  have  imported  300,000  blood 
hounds  and  placed  them  under  the  command  of  Major  General  Butler,  to  hunt  down  these  unfor 
tunate  people.  They  would  be  more  merciful  than  the  black  regiments,  with  all  their  brutal  pas 
sions  unrestrained.  And  in  this  way  it  is  proposed  to  win  back  our  erring  brethren,  and  recon 
struct  the  Union !  We  will  make  them  love  us  by  stripping  them  of  their  property,  and  driving 
their  helpless  women  and  children  from  their  firesides  and  homes !  We  will  compel  them  to  honor 
and  respect  our  flag  by  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  emancipated  slaves !  And  what  are  the  induce 
ments  we  hold  out  to  our  misguided  brethren  to  return  to  our  fraternal  embrace  ?  Do  we  promise 
to  feast  them  as  the  prodigal  son  was  feasted  when  he  returned  to  his  father's  house  ?  No !  we 
demand  unconditional  submission  to  our  laws.  Well,  what  are  these  laws?  The  answer  is,  your 
slaves  are  emancipated,  all  your  property  confiscated,  your  wives  and  children  reduced  to  beggary, 
and  in  due  time  you  will  be  tried  for  treason  and  executed  as  a  traitor  upon 'the  scaffold!  Is  it 
strange  that  an  American  should  prefer  dying  upon  the  field  of  battle,  by  the  hands  of  our  brave 
soldiers,  than-  to  be  strung  up  by  the  common  hangman?  Was  there  ever  such  delusion?  Does 
the  history  of  the  word  present  a  parallel  case?  Here  you  must  allow  me  to  quote  from  the  last 
speech  of  Judge  Douglas,  delivered  at  Chicago,  in  May,  1861,  a  few  days  before  his  death.  This, 
it  will  be  perceived,  is  after  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter:  "We  must  not  invade  constitutional  rights. 
The  innocent  must  no  suffer,  nor  women  or  children  be  the  victims.  Savages  must  not  be  let 
loose."  Yes,  fellow  citizens,  his  last  words  to  the  people  were,  "  the  women  and  children  must 
not  be  the  victims.  SAVAGES  MUST  NOT  BE  LET  LOOSE." 

How,  then,  can  the  war  be  terminated  ?  Certainly  not  by  the  party  who  now  control  the 
Government,  for  they  stand  pledged  to  prosecute  it  until  slavery  is  entirely  extinguished.  The 
emancipation  of  four  millions  of  negroes  is  of  far  more  importance  to  them 'than  the  lives  and 
property  of  eight  millions  of  their  own  race.  I  believe  the  conservative  element  in  this  country  is 
still  strong  enough  to  save  us  from  utter  ruin.  Let  the  people,  in  accordance  with  the  Constitu 
tion  and  laws,  drive  these  men,  who  have  converted  this  once  happy  and  prosperous  republic  into 
a  land  of  misery  and  mourning,  from  the  high  places  they  now  occupy.  The  Federal  Government, 
in  the  hands  of  National  Democrats,  who  always  maintained  the  equality  of  the  States,  and  who 
were  at  all  times  opposed  to  the  organization  of  sectional  parties,  this  war  might  be  terminated, 
an  honorable  compromise  effected,  and  the  Union,  perhaps,  restored  in  some  form.  But  if  this 
cauitot  be  done — what  then?  Are  we  to  continue  the  war  until  both  sections  are  entirely  ex 
hausted  ?  May  we  not  then  find  our  once  happy  and  free  country  partitioned  amongst  the  great 
Powers  of  Europe,  as  was  the  case  with  brave,  chivalric,  but  unfortunate  Poland  ?  Are  we  to  dis 
regard  all  the  sad  lessons  which  history  teaches  us?  Or,  is  this  war  to  terminate  as  most  of  the  revo 
lutions  which  have  convulsed  the  world  have  terminated?  First,  anarchy;  and  then,  despotism. 

In  1791  the  National  Convention  of  France  passed  a  decree  abolishing  all  distinctions  in 
society,  and  declaring  "  that  all  men  are  free  and  equal."  This  was  promulgated  in  the  French 
West  Indies,  and  very  soon  a  violent  contest  sprung  up  in  the  island  of  San  Domingo  between 
the  whites  and  the  free  colored  inhabitants.  In  the  meanwhile  the  slaves  discovering  that  the 
comprehensiveness  of  the  decree  embraced  them,  they  took  up  arms  and  massacreed  or  drove  out 
both  parties.  The  scenes  enacted  by  these  brutalize^  Africans  presents  one  of  the  "  bloodiest 
pictures  in  the  book  of  time."  On  the  1st  January  of  the  present  year,  President  Lincoln  virtu 
ally  declared  that  "  all  men  were  free  and  equal"  by  his  emancipation  proclamation.  Are  the 
Southern  States  to  be  Africanized,  and  are  we  to  have  the  bloody  drama  of  San  Domingo  re-en 
acted?  And  where  did  the  President  get  the  power  to  confiscate  the  property  of  nine  millions  of 
people?  He  gets  it  from  the  hand-book  relied  upon  by  tyrants  in  all  ages  of  the  world.  It  is 
the  book  in  which  the  law  of  "  military  necessity  "  is  written.  It  consists  of  but  a  'single  line  : 
"  Do  as  thou  wiU  with  the  lives,  liberty  and  property  of  the  peop  e."  But  in  this  case  the  plea  is  a  false 
one.  The  Republican  party  was  most  solemnly  pledged  to  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  as  I 
think  I  have  already  clearly  and  conclusively  established.  It  is,  therefore,  entirely  too  late  in  the 
day  for  the  President  and  his  party  to  affirm  that  emancipation  was  forced  upon  them  by  "military 
necessity"  They  were  fully  and  fairly  committed  before  God  and  man  to  this  policy  long  before 
the  first  State  seceded  from  the  Union.  Away,  then,  with  this  miserable,  hypocritical  canting 
about  "military  necessity!" 

We  are  vastly  superior  to  them  in  numbers ;  we  have  a  powerful  navy  and  a 
million  of  soldiers  in  the  field  against  their  ragged,  half  starved,  shoeless  troops  ;  but  have  we 
in  any  of  the  great  battles  which  have  been  fought,  gained  any  decisive  advantage  ?  We 
have  already  sacrificed  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  of  our  soldiers  in  the  efforts  to  take  the 


21 

city  of  Richmond,  and  the  work  is  still  going  on !  Have  they  not  exhibited  a  degree  of  heroic 
courage,  of  fortitude,  of  endurance  under  all  sorts  of  hardships  almost  unparalleled  in  the  history 
of  the  world?  Is  there  more  bravery  south  of  Mason's  and  Dixon's  line  than  north  of  it?  No, 
Sir-  no,  Sir.  In  the  Mexican  war  I  have  seen  Northern  and  Southern  troops  together  in  the  camp, 
upon  the  toilsome  march,  and  side  by  side  on  the  bloody  field  of  battle,  andsaw  no  difference.  But 
"  thrice  is  he  anoed  vho  thinks  his  quarrel  just."  How  many  thousands  are  there  now  in  our 
ranks,  who  enlisted,  solely  to  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  restore  the  Union  as 
it  was,  fighting  reluctantly  since  it  has  been  converted  into  a  war  for  the  emancipation  of  the  ne 
groes  and  the  subjugation  of  the  whites? 

The  vast  army  which  \ve  had  but  a  short  time  since  is  fast  fading  away  by  the  casualties  of 
war  and  by  the  expiration  of  the  terms  of  enlistment.  To  maintain  the  field,  another  army  is  de 
manded,  arid  this  is  to  be  raised  by  conscription.  And  from  them  what  can  we  expect?  More  than 
half  of  them  will  take  up  arms  reluctantly  because  they  have  no  heart  in  it,  because  they  are  not 
in  favor  of  the  emancipation  of  the  blacks  or  the  enslavement  of  the  whites,  because  they  do  not 
believe  that  a  re-union  can  be  secured  and  fraternal  feeling  restored  by  a  prosecution  of  this  war. 

then?     Under  these  circumstances  I  frankly  confess,  that  as"  an  American  citizen  of  the 
rely  desires  the  prosperity  and/  ippmess  of  the  people  amongst  whom  his  lot 

•  •I!  cast,  1  am  in  favor  of  an  armistice.  I  '  ould  suspend  hostilities  and  see  whether  there  is 
not  enough  of  the  old  American  patriotism,  which  founded  the  Government,  still  in^the  country  to 
effect  an  honorable  compromise  and  stop  this  terrible  destruction  of  human  life  which  must  inevi 
tably  result  in  the  ruin  of  both  sections. 

A  national  convention  of  delegates,  representing  the  people  of  the  respective  States,  might 
be  called,  and  some  arrangements  made,  satisfactory  and  honorable,  by  means  of  which  a  re-union 
could  be  formed.  I  know  that  there  is  riot  a  national  Democrat  in  the  broad  land  who  would  not 
cheerfully  sacrifice  his  life,  if  the  Union,  the  blessed  Union  of  our  Fathers,  "  the  Union  of^  bauds, 
the  Union,  of  hearts/-'  could  be  restored.  Without  claiming  more  patriotism  than  that  which  ani 
mates  the  bosoms  of  most  of  my  countrymen,  I  can  say,  in  the  sincerity  of  my  heart,  that  I  would 
willingly  spend  the  remainder  of  my  life  in  a  dungeon,  if  I  could  only  be  allowed  to  open  the  door 
of  my  cell  when  my  eyes  were  about  to  close  forever,  and  see  that  glorious  old  emblem,  the  Stars 
arid  Stripes,  proudly  waving  over  a  happy  and  united  nation— a  nation  bound  together  by  the  "ties 
of  fraternal  affection. 

But  if  we  can  not  accomplish  this  ;  if  we  can  not  induce  our  misguided  brethren  to  come 
back  into  the  Union  upon  giuimiitees  which  Democrats  have  always  been  willing  to  accord  them  ; 
if.  indeed,  a  feeling  has  been  engendered  which  renders  it  utterly  impossible  for  us  to  live  peace 
ably  together,  why,  then  in  God's  name  let  us  separate.  I  would  say  to  them,  as  the  old  patriarch 
Abraham  said  to  his  nephew.  Lot,  when  strife  arose  amongst  their  herdsmen  :  "  Go  thou  to  the 
right  hand,  and  I  will  go  to  the  left,  and  let  there  be  peace  between  us."  As  Burke  said  of  the 
American  colonies  in  1777  :  "  I  would  part  with  them  as  a  limb,  but  as  a  limb  to  save  the  body  ; 
and  I  would  have  parted  with  more,  if  more  had  been  necessary  ;  anything  rather  than  a  fruitless, 
hopeless,  unnatural  civil  war." 

Regarding  the  restoration  of  the  Union  as  hopeless,  I  would,  if  possible,  form  an  .alliance, 
offensive  and  defensive,  so  far  as  foreign  powers  are  concerned,  and  leave  the  work  of  re-construc 
tion  to  the  next  generation.  Profiting  by  the  bitter  experience  of  their  fathers,  they  may  be  able 
to  unite  the  now  discordant  elements  and  build  up  a  great  and  powerful  nation  of  freemen. 

I  believe  with  General  Jackson  that  "  the  Constitution  can  not  be  maintained,  nor  the  Union 
preserved,  by  the  mere  coercive  powers  confided  to  the  Federal.  Government.  The  foundation 
must  be  laid  in  the  aifectionB  of  the  people  ;  in  the  security  it  gives  to  life,  liberty,  character,  and 
property,  in  every  quarter  of  the  country ;  and  in  the  fraternal  attachments  which  the  citizens  of 
the  several  States  bear  to  one  another  as  members  of  one  political  family."  If  compelled  to  choose 
between  extermination,  subjugation,  or  separation,  I  prefer  the  latter.  I  have  never  thought  that 
these  States  could  be  held  together  by  force,  and  I  fully  concur  iu  the  sentiments  expressed  by 
John  Quiney  Adams  in  1888,  and  by  Edward  Everett  in  February.  1861— both  eminent  statesmen, 
in  speaking  of  the  right  of  revolution,  Mr.  Adauis  said  :  ;<  If  the  day  shall  ever  come  (Heaven 
avert  it)  when  the  affections  of  the  people  of  these  States  shall  be  alienated  from  each  other  ;  when 
the  fraternal  shall  give  way  to  cold  indifference,  or  collision  of  interest  shall  fester  into  hatred,  the 
bonds  of  political  association  will  not  long  hold  together  parties  no  longer  attracted  by  the  mag 
netism  of  conciliated  interests  and  kindly  sympathies,  and  far  better  will  it  be  for  the  people  of 
these  disunited  States  to  part  in  friendship  from  each  other,  than  to  be  held  together  by  con 
straint.  " 

Mr.  Everett  (late  candidate  on  the  Union  ticket  for  the  Vice  Presidency)  said  :  "  To  expect 
to  hold  fifteen  States  in  the  Union  by  force  is  preposterous.  The  idea  of  a  civil  war,  accompanied 
as  it  would  be  by  servile  insurrection,  is  too  monstrous  to  be  entertained  for  a  moment.  If  our 
sister  States  must  leave  us.  in  the  name  of  Heaven  let  them  go  in  peace.-  That  great  British 
statesman,  Mr.  Burke,  in  17-77,  when  speaking  of  the  war  which  our  fathers  were  then  waging  for 
American  independence,  said :  '•  This  mode  of  yielding  would,  it  is  said,  give  way  to  independ 
ence  without  a  war.  But  if  it  had  this  effect.  I  confess  that  I  should  prefer  independence  wi 
war  than  to  independence  with  it :  and  I  havr  BO  nv.ioli  trust  in  the  inclinations  and  prejudices  of 
mankind,  and  so  little  iu  anything  else,  that  1  should  expect  ten  times  more  benefit  to  this  king 
dom  from  the  affections  of  America,  though  under  a  separate  establishment,  than  from  her  perfect 


to  the  Crown  and  the  Parliament,  accompanied  with  her  terror,  disgust  and  abhorrence. 
tiod  together  by  so  unnatural  a  bond  of  Union  as  MUTUAL  HA  u:d  to 

M&rk  tha  words,  fellow-citizeas ;  for  they  are  !  Wf  (MIL-' 

:r  :     (:  Bodies  tied  together  by  so  unnntaral  a  hm  are  only  c> 

ant  you  that  there  would  '  ru'culties  >A  hich  would  pro  > 

.r-ion  of  the  Republic;  bntj  prefer  the  experiment  to  the  continuance  of  this  most  unnatural 
war.     We  have  neighbors  on  this  continent,  with  whom  we  have  lived  peaceably  for  more  than 
half  a  century.    A  great  nation  of  a  dilfrrcnt  form  of  government,  but  of  the  :-aVne  la 
race,  occupies  an<  jurisdiction  over  territory  separated  from  usby'narrow  rivers  an. 

graphical  linns.    By  means  of  steamboats,  railroads  and  telegraphs,  we  hold  daily  arid 
communication  with  their  people.    Botli  countries  have  prospi.-p'.:i.  ;.nd  no  serious  difficulties  have 
occurred  to  disturb  the  friendly  relations  of  th<  e  Governments.    If  we  ca: 

ably  and  quietly  with  Great  Britain,  can  we  no't  do  the  same  with  .Sni'.M  ic,.as  \vho  were  once-  mem 
bers  of  our  "imall  rivers  and  parate  us  from  ,Mc:Jco,  and 
yet  wi                  i  i  that  \vc  must  necessarily  quarrel?    Can  not  publv.  ..id  the  law  of  na 
tions  L                 :  control  our  intercourse  with  each,  oil:                           ML  foreign  nations?  \\'< 
treaties  with  England   urn:  and  other 
running  through  or  constituting  the  bound;.:                 :'n  their  territories  and  ours,  and  cannot  the 
same  be  done  with  the  South?    The  in  calculable- evils  which  have  resulted  to  both  section:-.  from 
the  prosecution  of  this  war,  will  disincline  them  to  rush  madly  into  controversies  in  future. 

A  few  more  words  in  conclusion.     As  an  humble  member  of  C 

a  century  ago,  I  warned  the  con;,  -inch  would  inevi  •  fn  in 

the  persistent  hostility  evin<  h  towards  the  institutions  of  the  South.     A 

of  the  Senate  in  lati.  'ure  popu! 

(what  required  no  prophet  to  foresee.)  that  a  .spirit  was  belii^-  engendered   '.'preen  the  tv, 

n'hieh.  unless  arrested,  would  terminate  in  a  dissolution  of  the  Union.     T 

been  a  National  Democrat,  and  i  Ui:  rjl'oro  foci  ihat  not  a  single  drop  ol'  limi.  vet-;  oc-  ae  <;:  humi  ;;. 
blood  whici.  :-.hed  in  this.  Wftr  r-i;;ts  npoi'i  inv  liaaiLs,     The  principles,  whii-h    i   : 

advocated — to  love  the  whole  Union,  and  do  equal  and  exa:  plac< 

the. position  which  I  now  occup  d   with,  disloyalty.     Well.  v>h;it   ia 

loyalty?    I  do  not  like  the  word,  because  it  belongs,  to  a  different  form  of  government  fron; 
and  hass  been  imported  by  "Republicans"  for  the  pnrpos:.:  of  applying  to  those  who  stand  by  the 
President,  right  or  wrong,  in  all  b  The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  declares  :  "'This 

Constitution,  and  the  laws  of  ihe  United  Stato  s..  which  shall  be  made  iu  pursuance  thereof,  and  all 
treaties  ma-  io  under  the  authority  of  the  Unit1  be  the 

supremo  law  of  the  land,."     This  is  the  truv  .  nd  OK.'  nia.n.  u;h<.<  -!;•!•. -; 

this  in  all  i;  •  ..r  be  cliarged  with  .     iJiil  do  the  Republic.  ("the 

Constitution,  and  the  I  ice  thereof,  the  supreme  law  of  the  land':':    Do  th'  y  not 

sustain  the  Executive  in  trampling  upon  the  Constitution  "and  the  laws  made  in  pursni 
of."    Who,  then,  are  disloyal  '    i  o"we  no  allegLtace  to  Abraham  Lincoln.     I  have  tak 
(and,  God  helping,  I  never  will,)  to  be  true  and  lo;  :s  due  to  the  Constitu 

tion  and  the  laws  passed  in  pursuance  thereof.     These  I  am  to  r  *i  th':: 

land  j  and  as  a  Democrat  I  intend  to  do  it.     W); 

Act— a  law  passed,  as  the  Supreme  Court  -.if  the  Con- :  Who 

!  mobs  in  (/ 

vent  its  execution?     Who  •  :  .  he  ••  Vigilance  Committee71  in  San  Francisco,  sue] 

criminal  Courts,  hung  men  or  jury,  and  sentenced  otln 

portation?     Who  inaugurated  a  military  force  which,  month  after  month  sulh  their  bay  oh- 
the  Executive  and  Judicial  authorities  of  the  State  at  <!<  .   Sir) 

Never!    It  was  these  i;  law  abiding."  -  loyal'-'  Republicrn:-  who  ;!••:•  bitter  in  denon 
and  aiding  in  transpf*-.'  who  have  alwi 

allegiance.    But  I  m;  : need  in  the  present  •  pularmiii-i 

be  it  EO.    I  am  sick  and  tired  of  war.     I  am  for  peace;  ahboiirrri  I 
changed  the  Scripture,  as  promulgat •  ;.  d  now  make  it  re 

peace-makers,  for  they  shall  bee  i  ^rs.  and  inhabit  our  bastflea."    i  confess  the  blood  Is 

chilled  in  my  veins,  and  the  heart  almost  c  .  .  wheu  1  reflect  apoa  >vhieh 

this  war  is  inflicting  upon  our  country.     The  English  M\u-...-:JUim  to  whom    ! 
(Mr.  Burke,)  in  speaking  of  the  •  -ays : 

Cirfl  wars  strike  drv;  T  to  the  manners  of  the  people.    They  vitiat*-  • 

moral - 

T!I«  whole  bo<jj'  of  our  nir 

were  the  bond  of  charily  whiUt  wo  agreed,  b'-corne  new  inceu.ivis  to  bfl 

country  ia  dissolved.     Ww  tbay  flatter  ourselves  that  we.^iii  . :.  r  of 

exemption  that  I  know  of  from  the  ordinary  frailties  of  our  nature. 

No,  fellow  citizens,  we  Americans  have  no  "  charr-T  of  .-,  rom  tho  ordinary  frail 

ties  of  human  nature.     This  is  the  language  of  the   ;  and   phllosoph 

equally  etrong  and  emphatic  is  11:  •  of  one  of  England's  mosl 

had  an  opportunity  of  wituessing  the  effect  of  civil  wars--I  allude  to  the  Duke  of  W'..-lH".gtoa. 
He  says : 


It  has  %;)«£!tt  my  fortune  to  have  seen  nmoh  of  war — more  tlian  most  men.    I  have  been  constantly  engaged  la 

•<u  from  boyhood  until  I  have  grown  grey.    M'-  life  has  been  passed  in  familiarity  with  sceues  of 

OiiTum.s lances  have  placed  ine  in  countries  tvhere  the  war  was  internal — l>etweeu  opposite  par- 

hc  same  nation  ;  aud.  rather  than  a  country  I  loved  should  be  visited  with  the  calamities  which  I'have  seen, 

.-.   I  wtml'l  run  any  risk  ;  I  would  make  any  sacrifice;  I  would  freely  lay  down 

Th»r«  Is  nothing  9j»  property  and  don  tothecxlenl  '  'var  does.    By 

•i  }  «.•;'  in  in  in  r:ust-;:  again. "-I  iu--. ..  it  brother,  agaiust  his  father  ;  the  servant  betrays  his  master  and 

the  master  ruins  his  aervaut. 

Fellow  citizens,  we  cannot  remedy  the  evils  which  have  already  resulted  from  this  war.  but 
is  it  not  the  part  of  wisdom  to  arrest  it?  Or  must  we  go  on  until  the  country  is  irretrievably 
mined?  Shall  we,  Sampson  like,  in  order  to  exhibit  our  strength,  tear  down  the  pillars  which 

t  the  temple  of  American  liberty,  and  bury  ail  in  one  undistinguished  ruin  ?  Must  vre  madly 
rush  onward  until  the  flat  of  the  Almighty  announces  that  the  Government  upon  which  He  graci- 

-miled  for  three-quarters  of  a  century  has  ceased  to  exist!  Shall  ours  be  the  doom  of 
at  Babylon  !  "  God  hath  numbered  thy  kir^dom  and  finished  it.  Thou  art  weighed  in  the 
balance  and' found  wanting.  Thy  kingdom  is  db,  led  and  given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians." 

Fellow  citizens,  I  am  no  alarmist.  I  am  no*  vpt  to  apprehend  danger  when  there  is  none,  nor 
have  T  any  disposition  to  arouse  either  the  pus?  <  or  prejudices  of  the  people  ;  nor  have  I  been 
actuated  m  my  present  course  by  any  oilier  mo  es  than  a  sincere  desire  to  preserve  the  liberties 
of  my  country.  In  the  ordinary  course  of  nature  I  must  soon  pasis  from  this  to  another  state  of 
existence,  and  hence  this  question  is  of  far  more  practical  importance  to  most  of  you  than  it  is  to 
me.  If  I  did  not  believe  in  my  soul  that  this  —ar.  unless  speedily  arrested,  will  destroy  th« 
last  hope  of  American  freedom,  I  should  not  ha  poken  here  to-day. 

But  I  may  be  denounced  as  a  traitor.  Is  not  unjust  and  cruel  to  denounce  in  this  man 
ner  men  who  have  rallied  all  their  lives  arounb  je  Constitution  whenever  it  was  assailed,  stood 
by  your  laws  when  efforts  were  made  to  prevent  their  execution,  and  rushed  to  the  field  of  battle 
when  the  honor  of  the  country  demanded  it?  These  Republicans,  who  now  wield  the  power  and 
patronage  of  the  Government,  denounce  as  traitors  all  who  will  not  aid  them  in  trampling  upon 
the  Constitution  and  the  inalienable  rights  of  the  people.  They  denounce  as  traitors  American. 
citizens  who  are  unwilling  to  sacrifice  their  own  liberties  and  become  the  slaves  of  a  military 
despotism  in  order  to  emancipate  the  negroes  of  the  South!  They  send  to  their  bastiles  and 
loathsome  prisons  men  who  dare  utter  a  word  i  hehalf  of  a  bleeding  Constitution  and  an  out- 
raped  people!  Women  as  well  as  men  have  b  -n  made  the  victims  of  their  merciless  hands. 
They  have  respected  neither  age,  sex,  nor  conditi  The  young  and  the  old,  the  strong  and  the 
feeble,  the  wise  and  the  foolish,  all,  all  alike  have  een  forced  from,  their  homes  and  incarcerated 
in  prisons.  They  have  shown  none  of  that  mercy 

"  Which  becomes 
The  throned  monarch  better  than  his  crown." 

In  their  madness,  their  folly,  their  wickedness,  they  have  despoiled  the  angel  of  liberty  and 
robbed  her  of  all  the  charms  which  attached  us  tt>  her.  If  any  traces  still  remain  of  her  former 
beauty, 

"  'Tia  but  that  loveliness  in  death 
Which  parts  not  quite  with  parting  breath  ; 
Expression's  last  receding  ray, 
A  gilded  halo  hovering  round  decay." 

But  you  call  me  a  traitor  to  the  country!  A  traitor,  because  I  will  not  abandon  the  prin 
ciples  which  have  governed  and  controlled  my  political  actions  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  ;  a  traitor,  because  I  will  not  quietly  submit  to  have  the  yoke  of  a  military  despotism  fast 
ened  upon  my  neck  ;  a  traitor,  because  l"do  not  believe  in  the' infallibility  of  the  President,  and 
dare  to  complain  of  his  repeated  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  m^  fathers ;  disloyal  to  the 
Government,  because  I  am.  in  favor  of  expelling  from  power  the  men  who  have  robbed  the  Treas- 


solved,  so  far  as  I  can,  to  transmit  to  my  children  unimpaired  the  rich  legacy  I  received  from  my 
ancestors.    I  will 

"  Stand  for  the  right  'mid  the  gloom  and  the  sorrow 
That  is  now  lowering  over  the  prospect  of  to-day; 
For  the  truth  will  shine  brighter  to  morrow 
While  darkness  arid  doubt  shall  be  driven  away." 

It  is  quite  probable  that  the  sentiments^whica  I  have  this  day  expressed  are  not  in  accord 
ance  with  those  entertained  by  a  majority  of  my  countrymen.  To  me  this  is  a  matter  of  deep- 
regret,  but  I  cannot  help  it.  If  I  desired  to  reenter  public  life,  policy  might  have  dictated  the 
withholding  many  things  that  I  have  said  to-day  ;  but  I  resolved  at  the  outset  to  discard  all  such 
considerations  and  make  a  clean  breast  of  it.  "  Come  weal  or  come  woe,??  I  have  spoken  the  firm 
convictions  of  my  mind — the  honest  sentiments  of  my  heart. 

In  the  meanwhile  I  will  be  loyal  and  true  to  the  Constitution,  true  to  my  principles,  true  to 
my  conscience,  and  true  to  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  permanent  interests  of  iny  country,  no  mat 
ter  what  the  consequences  may  be.  Although  the  storai  may  not  subside  and  the  skies  brighten  in 


my  Jay,  still  I  venture  the  prediction,  that  t  ioa  which  succeeds  me  will  never  say  to  my 

tat  their  father  was  a  traitor  tc-Ms  country. 

Fellow  citizens,  for  the  expression  yf  these  sentirnen  1  !>y  a  military  guard, 

f-rs  have  been,  dragged  away  from  ray  \vife  and  childi  e  Well, 

if  indeed  I  have  outlived  the  liberties  of  the  people,  ii  is  LI  in itii.-r  ot  \  <:\'v  iicile  import:uMx- 
an  old  National  Democrat  spends  his  ie\v  reniainino;  years.     And   if.  in  the  1'rovidenee  of  God,  it 
should  be  my  destiny  to  terminate  my  days  vn  a  dungeon,  I  ask  :  ,ls  (for  I  trust  I  will 

-ome  behind,)  'to  raise  a  simple  slab  u>  v.  and  inscribe  these  words  upon  it : 

'•}TE:;K  LIES  THE  BODY  OF  AN  AMERICAN  *vw>  ; 'OKI -KITED  HIS  I ..  n  DIED  IN  PRISON*,  TOR 

GT>  AID  IN*  Sr.AnnfTKiuNu  NJXK  Mr  .  \VOMKN  ANT>  Cn  N  BLOOD,  IN 

:  lu  UIVE  F  I'OUR  MILLIONS  01 


